Golden mead, fermented with gruit, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger root, sweet-briar, rosemary, and lemon.
Reviewed 07/04/2008
In the bottle: Honey, lemon, and a hint of ginger.
On my skin: This quickly becomes vaguely-honey-scented baby powder. WAHHH. It has good throw and lasts for EVER, so I think I'll let it age for a few months and test it again.
Beckons all giant creatures from gargantuan reptiles and humongous moths! These babies are sure to crush everything from dollhouses to shopping malls! Can even be used to summon colossal robots in a pinch! A sweet and crisp vanilla mint!
Reviewed 07/28/2007
When I opened the bottle, all I could smell were freshly baked sugar cookies. It was definitely sweet, sugary vanilla all the way. I love vanilla, but it was way too sweet.
The moment it touched my skin, though, the vanilla faded and the mint came rushing forward. I absolutely adore this scent, and it lasts forever on me. Ten hours after I tried it on yesterday I could still smell it if I lifted my arm past my face! My boyfriend swears he smells chocolate in it, but I don't get that from it. Either way, he liked it as much as I did.
I'm going to have to be careful and sparing with this one, even though I love it to death; my skin just grabs this and holds on for dear life and it could very easily get overwhelming. It's definitely a wrists-only scent for me.
A stirring yet gentle perfume. The scent of love and devotion mingled with an undercurrent of heart-rending sorrow. A bouquet of white roses, labdanum, and wild orchid.
Reviewed: 07/07/2008
In the imp: Sharp, strong florals.
Wet: Sharp floral, an undertone of something soft and powdery.
Drydown: The sharpness has faded, and only the soft florals remain. This is pretty and feminine; it 'feels' very gentle and spring-ish. It has decent throw but fades relatively quickly. I think it would be interesting to put it in a scent locket and my skin at the same time, so that the locket would retain the sharpness but it could take on the softer scent on my skin.
Ok, fine. It isn't really a lump of coal, but brownies and coal are vaguely similar in color! -- and you know you could never be naughty enough for us to really toss a coal at you! After all, we specialize in sin at Black Phoenix. This is the truly sinful scent of a sticky, thick, dark and rich fudge brownie.
Reviewed 02/22/2008
I'll cut to the chase with this one: there is no morph, no difference between imp and wet and drydown, it is pure chocolate decadence. It is spot-on in capturing the scent of a pan of brownies, fresh out of the oven, with the edges a bit crispy and the middle still gooey and sticky. YUM.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Reviewed 09/14/2008
In the imp: Creamy fresh, sweet floral.
Wet: Chemical flowers.
Drydown: This smells like flowery toilet bowl cleaner. Thankfully it faded very, very quickly. This definitely does NOT love my skin.
Cardinal air: the essence of balance.
Rose, black cherry, carnation, fig, honey, plum, and black currant.
Reviewed 01/09/2008
In the imp I smell lots of fruit; the cherry and currant dominate. It's very sweet and very juicy. That's really what I was looking for when I sought this one out. On my skin, however, it's a sweet, spicy, almost overblown rose. It took me a few minutes to place it, but finally I put my finger on it: this smells JUST like the rose character from the Rose Petal Place dolls produced in the eighties. It takes me back to some very fond memories of my childhood and it's a beautiful blend, but it has a very young feel so I don't think that I will wear it often.
Seduction, sensuality, the Act, and the aftermath all in one. The scent of warm, damp skin flushed with the glow of passion, touched by the luxuriant potency of ylang ylang and myrrh.
Reviewed: 08/11/2007
This did not start off well. It was intensely floral and soapy for the first half hour, and I was ready to write it off completely. After about half an hour, though, it faded to a very spicy, subtle floral that was lovely. Unfortunately, it was completely gone within two hours after the morph so it really isn't worth the flowery soap phase for me.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Come whiffing through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
An earthy yet buoyant scent: pine, eucalyptus and orange.
Reviewed 07/28/2007
I got this as a freebie and did not really expect to use it at all because of my first whiff. When I first opened it all I could smell was pure Pine-Sol, enough to make me recoil. I capped it and put it away feeling like my nostrils had been singed!
I'm not exactly sure why I gave it a second chance, but I pulled it out, held my breath, and swabbed some on.
On my skin the pine and eucalyptus faded extremely fast. It's changed from my OCD aunt's bathroom floor to a sunny orange grove with a few pines scattered around the borders, and stayed that way for the past three hours. There's not much throw to it, either, so it would be great for close settings when you don't want to overwhelm.
This is definitely a wearable pick-me-up scent; I can see myself wearing this on days when I have to go into work early or I know I'll be staying late.
An irrelevant, disturbing, and surreal scent: red currant, green tea, red musk, Hawaiian ginger, benzoin, vanilla, coriander, squash blossom, and blueberry.
Reviewed 07/29/2008
In the bottle: Lots of lovely blueberry candy, something sharp and clean (the tea?), and a hint of flowers.
Wet: No! Go away soap, go away! *sob*
Drydown: This turns into a perfectly lovely blend, the soapiness fades away and leaves a crisp, clean blend that reminds me of freshly laundered linens with flower petals pressed between the sheets. But that sweet blueberry candy scent never comes back, and that's what I really wanted. Wahhh. I hate you, body chemistry.
Spectral white musk and the heart-stopping chill of sheared mint, fanned by caramel-touched body heat, and the diabolical sensuality of black musk, nicotiana, and sage.
Reviewed 01/03/2008
I got this as a frimp from the lab, so I decided to try it without looking at the notes beforehand.
This, on me, smells like vomit and cigar smoke. My arm smells like a bar bathroom at closing time. I don't know what happened between this and my body chemistry but oh, my dear gods. This is definitely going in the swap pile.
Hony mone, a term proverbially applied to such as be newly married, which will not fall out at the first, but th'one loveth the other at the beginning excedingly, the likelyhood of their exceadinge love appearing to aswage, ye which time the vulgar people call the hony mone.
Three honeys blended with seven fruits, flowers, and herbs of passion, pleasure, and joy: honeysuckle, fig, carnation, apricot, jasmine, tonka, and almond.
Reviewed 12/19/2007
In the bottle, bright golden honey with an undertone of almond and just the faintest hint of flowers in the background. I put it on and BAM. Pretty much instantly it became cat pee. I waited a while, hoping it would change again, but the only morph I got was overripe, almost rotting floral. Oh skin chemistry, how I loathe thee! I love honey scents so I will save one bottle and see if I can age the pee out of it, but I think the extra bottle I got may be swapped out.
Hay absolute, tall grasses, dry honey, mallow, cardamom, amber, and wheat.
Reviewed 07/04/2008
In the bottle: This screams 'perfume'. I almost didn't want to try it.
On my skin: My grandfather. I can't even sniff for notes because this smells EXACTLY like my grandfather, the unique combination of his aftershave, soap, hair stuff, cologne, and tanned skin. When I smell this I see his face, it is *dead on*. My partner thinks this smells amazingly yummy and would love me to wear it all the time. It's lovely, but I don't think it's something I can wear because it makes me all teary.
Osmanthus, honey, golden musk, vanilla flower, and ginger.
Reviewed 03/20/2008
In the imp: I have no idea what I'm smelling, but it 'feels' golden. It doesn't smell particularly musky or floral or spicy or sweet.
Wet: Now there's floral notes. Something is making my nose twitch if I sniff too closely, maybe the ginger?
Drydown: I have such hit-or-miss luck with honey notes. Sometimes it's gorgeous, sometimes it turns into cat pee. Sadly, this is the latter kind. I really enjoyed this scent until about 45-60 minutes into the weartime, and then it turned bad. I probably won't be ordering a bottle of this before it comes down, but I'll hang onto my imp for use in my scent locket.
Unreleased scent, no description
Reviewed 03/08/2008
I really wanted this to work on me because I love the concept. I don't know what my skin chemistry is doing, but it turned into cinnamon-spiced celery! What the heck?
As light and innocent as your first time should have been. The fresh scent of lotus hidden behind lightly scented flowers, amber, and citrus.
Reviewed: 08/01/2007
Forbidden Fruit was Juicy Fruit gum with a bottom note of cat pee on me. On munchkin, it was gorgeous, sparkling citrusy-floral with just the right amount of sweetness. I'm sensing a trend here: scents that I really want to try wind up smelling awful on me and disgustingly good on my kid. *Definitely* time to sell her to the circus.
OK, this is mainly going to be a list for me to keep track of scents I liked and disliked, without needing to search for my reviews in the main forum. I can do more squeeing and ranting, too. If you want to leave suggestions, please feel free!
A huge crowd mills in front of the next stage. You hear the din of their voices, chattering in a Babel’s fall of languages, laughing and buzzing with a strange anticipation. As you get closer, you notice that they are wearing a motley mix of clothing from ages past… all rotting, all in shreds. In the sea of faces, all bearing a similar chalky pallor, some stand out: there is a woman in a threadbare Burgundian gown, a young man in torn breeches and sagging slops, a maiden in a dagged-sleeve houppelande that is splattered with cruor, a snarling Victorian rogue with a battered silk top hat, and a vacant-eyed man in a shredded Confederate uniform. As you make your way through the crowd, you feel cold fingers pluck at your clothing, and the hard, almost glassy skin that you brush against radiates an unnatural cold. You hear tittering sighs as you push through the gathering, and your skin prickles as you feel icy breath upon your neck. Abruptly, someone cries out, and the strange congregation begins clapping a steady rhythm. Their voices rise in a tintamar of ghastly cheers as torches flare to life on the stage. The firelight illuminates a gargantuan, shining black stake in the center of the stage. It is festooned with black ribbons, drooping moss, and viciously-colored poisonous blooms in a playful, grotesque mockery of a Maypole. Two women, clutched tightly in a brutal embrace, spin onto the stage, shaking a tambourine and clacking a hembra in time with the clapping. One is clad in violet, with violet tresses to match; the other is a vision of swirling rose. Their long, waving hair whips in manic arcs as they twirl, stomp, and pirouette around the onyx shaft. The crowd becomes more and more frenzied as the dance reaches a mad crescendo, and suddenly you realize that the two are one: they are conjoined, identical twins, bound eternally at the ribs. The violet sister, caught in the throes of the ritual’s passion, throws her head back and moans. She bares a set of gleaming white fangs and bites deeply into her sister's neck. The rose maiden screams in joy, and returns her sister’s violent kiss as the crowd explodes into Corybantic mayhem. Simplicity and innocence, gleefully despoiled! Hope is sugared rose, Faith is sugared violet. The sisters are inseparable, and may only be purchased together.
Reviewed 07/30/2007
In the bottle this was so yummy and perfect: candied violets and thick powdered sugar icing, innocent and youthful but somehow entirely adult, and I loved it. It started off gorgeous wet, too, but when it dried it turned horribly wrong. It smelled like a Hug-A-Jug, one of those awful pure-sugar drinks, with a faint note of hand soap underneath. I sniff this on my skin and immediately think of Little League games from my childhood. Not something I want to smell like at work or out for the evening.
I passed this one off to the munchkin. If anyone can pull off a childishly sweet scent it's an eight year old, right? Imagine my surprise when she tried it on and the violets deepened, the sugar faded to a bare hint, and she was left with the gorgeous, delicate scent I originally fell in love with. Little monster, I'm sending her out to work to fund her own BPAL habit! *LOL*
The Day of Kings, the Celebration of the Magi. In Mexico, on January 6th, children place their shoes by their windows. If they have been good during the previous year, the Wise Men tuck gifts into their shoes during the night.
Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar.
Reviewed 01/22/2008
In the bottle: Chocolate, lots and lots of it.
Wet: This smells just like hot chocolate. Not the powder stuff that gets mixed with water, but the real stuff. YUM. It's incredibly rich, decadent, and lifelike.
Drydown: Now I'm getting hints of cinnamon teasing me through the chocolate. There is no coffee, just sweet, thick chocolate and swirls of cinnamon. I am enthralled by this perfume, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely a winter scent, I can't even imagine wearing something this warm and thick during the summer months. Like Midway, this is best described as NOMNOMNOM. The absolute best, most true-to-life chocolate scent I've ever tried.
All the glory, warmth and majesty of the sun -- darkened. A delicious blend of bitter almond, vanilla, frankincense and heliotrope, with a drop of cinnamon.
Reviewed: 03/08/2008
In the imp: Almond, and it's strong.
Wet: Almond, a bit of sweetness from the vanilla. I'm not getting any cinnamon, and so far no skin reaction from it either.
Drydown: The cinnamon never came forward, and this wound up turning into slightly almondy baby powder. Not unpleasant, but not what I was looking for or expecting. I think it would make a nice room scent, and it might work in a scent locket, but this isn't something I'll be reaching for to wear.
A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, lychee for strong family relationships and peace in the home, orange for happiness, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, coconut for longevity, and candied melon for good health, with a splash of blazing red of dragon's blood... to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.
Reviewed 03/08/2008
In the imp: This smells sharp, but not citrus sharp. It makes my nose twitch.
Wet: Why hello there melon! Wow, that's strong. I can't make out any of the other notes through the melon.
Drydown: None of the citrus notes came out for me, sadly. The melon calmed down a lot and blended with the other notes to create a beautiful fruity-floral scent with a hint of something sharp cutting through all sweetness. I'm glad I didn't amp the dragon's blood in this, because it doesn't do well on me. The throw is low, but it lasts a really long time even on my skin, which drinks up oils like a Hummer guzzles down gas. I'm not sure how often I will wear this, but I definitely want a bottle of this before it goes down.
The NIGHTMARE TERROR of TEENAGE love gone GRISLY!
She's HELL-BENT on romance, THRILL-CRAZED, and HUNGRY!
There's NO ESCAPE from her clutches!
A deranged darling, sweet and sociopathic! Clotted vanilla cream, pink pepper, grapefruit, blood lily, red ginger, English pear, and lemon-squeezed candyfloss!
Reviewed 02/09/2008
In the bottle: Vanilla cake, a hint of something cherry-ish. Very foody.
Wet: Again, something cherry-ish, but that fades quickly. The grapefruit and lemon are in the forefront, with creamy vanilla swirling underneath.
Drydown: Sparkling, happy citrus. There is a bit of spice to keep it from going into the cleaning product smell. The cream seems to have blended in so well that I can't pick it out as a separate note but there is still a creamy feel. There's a short time when the pear note gives it a hint of play-doh, but thankfully it doesn't stay very long.
The pear in this gave me pause, but I still ordered two bottles unsniffed. I'm glad that I did, because it's fabulous. This is definitely screaming "Hoard me!"
In Irish folklore the Dana O'Shee are a fae, elven people that live in a realm of beauty, their nobility akin to our that own Age of Chivalry, eternally beautiful and eternally young. They surround themselves with the pleasures of the Arts, they live for the hunt, and to this day can be seen riding in procession through the Irish countryside at twilight, led by their King and Queen. However, the Dana O'Shee are not benevolent creatures, despite what their unearthly beauty may imply. They are vengeful and treacherous and possess a streak of mischievous malice, and many have whispered that their true home lies deep in the shadowed groves of the Realm of the Dead. Hearing even a single chord of their otherworldly music leaves one stunned and lost to the mortal realms for ever, finding themselves prey to the Dana O'Shee's hunt or enslaved in their Court as servants or playthings. Offerings of milk, honey and sweet grains were made to placate these creatures, and it is that the basis of the scent created in their name.
Reviewed 07/31/2007
When I first put this on, there's a burst of dark, juicy, almost overripe cherry that fades almost immediately; if I don't raise my wrist to my nose immediately, I completely miss the phase. After the momentary cherry phase, it immediately settles into a warm, creamy milk and honey scent that is grounded with just a touch of oatmeal. It's not a terribly strong throw, but when I move my hands you can definitely smell it in the air and it seems to last for ages on my skin...I wore this for ten hours without a single re-application. This is the first scent that someone else has noticed on me (without me pointing it out), and I was complimented three different times while wearing it at work today. I would love this as a room scent, too, and I'm seriously thinking of going out and buying an oil burner just for that. It just has a very inviting, comforting, calming feel to it. It's official, Tokyo Stomp now has some stiff competition for the top spot in my growing arsenal.
If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings... It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence...A creeping, wet, slithering scent, dripping with seaweed, oceanic plants and dark, unfathomable waters.
Reviewed 08/02/2007
Where are my aquatics? Where are my green notes? Why does my skin hate me?
Soap. Strong, masculine-smelling soap. I smell like my grandpa. The good part is that this faded really quickly and is almost completely gone two hours after applying it, so at least I don't have to smell it all day. Maybe I'll try this one on the boy.
As sweet as death, as deep as the grave: pomegranate, raspberry, gardenia, plum, and rose with patchouli, black pepper, rose musk, and a hint of blood accord.
Originally reviewed 09/09/2007, revisited 11/02/2007
I tried this for the first time back in September, and got a strange Vicks Vap-o-rub scent from it. I decided to give it another try tonight, just to see if there was any reason for me to keep it sitting around in my BPAL box.
I'm still getting a strong Vicks scent from this. I can smell the berries swirling around under the surface, but whatever is going Vicks-ish on me is way too dominant. Unfortunately, it just does not fade away completely. With the exception of that one note, I love this blend...but that one note is so strong and lasting that I can't get past it.
As sweet as death, as deep as the grave: pomegranate, raspberry, gardenia, plum, and rose with patchouli, black pepper, rose musk, and a hint of blood accord.
Reviewed 09/09/2007
I am really torn about this one. I absolutely love the subtle florals and juicy, dark berries. In the bottle, it is absolutely perfect. But on my skin there is an odd smell that comes out, I'm not sure what it is but it makes my nose tickle like a whiff of Vicks Vap-o-rub does. Maybe the pepper? It's not horribly strong but it doesn't fade away. I'm going to give it a few more tries and see how it does around other people, and if they notice that same weird scent when I wear it I may try aging it for a while before trying again.
