Zarita, the Doll Girl: Soft, yet sociopathic: white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream.
In the imp: A floral-ish cream? Yum!!
On me: a nice sweetened floral blend, but I think I need to wear this again before deciding on whether or not I need a bottle.
Yvaine: The high, crystalline scent of a star-filled night with blue lavender and lush magnolia.
In the imp: Not sure about this, it doesn't smell very appealing and I get some sort of citrus?
On me: This totally blossoms, and the weirdness goes away. The lavender is sweetened up by something in there, and the magnolia peeks out but doesn't make the blend overly flora. It really does embody Yvaine, to my Stardust-loving-self.
This is very yummy and a bottle is needed.
Western Diamondback: Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage.
In the imp: Snake oil with sweetened leather, a bit of sandalwood and sage peeking out.
On me: I was afraid of the leather, as it usually goes wrong on me, but this one went right. I smelled the snake oil underneath, but got a nice blend of leather and sage in there too. No sign of the sandalwood, and maybe a peek at the tonka. This is a great blend.
This will be turning into a bottle!
Valentine of Rome: Ecclesiastical incense, Roman flora, and the fruits of martyrdom: cypress, olive blossom, frankincense, myrrh, and blood accord.
In the bottle: I got incense, but with something harsh in there. Maybe it was vetiver, even though it's not listed? Vetiver and I have a love/hate relationship, but it usually ends up being hate.
On me: The vetiver-ish note toned down some, but there was something ash-like that I really wasn't enjoying. There was incese too, but not enough to overpower the vetiver/ash thing going on.
Two Monsters: Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper.
In the Imp: Upon first sniff I didn't think it would work. I got a lot of leather, which has a 50/50 chance of going wrong on my skin, and vetiver, whichusually goes wrong on me if it's GC but not with CD blends.
Wet: The wrong kind of leather and some rotted spinach smelling vetiver underneath. I didn't even wait for the drydown and tossed it into the swaps pile.
And then, 10 minutes later, this scent morphed into one of the most amazing scents I have ever tried. Talk about a morpher!!! It reminds me of Temple Viper, another favorite.
The leather blends beautifully with the resins and champaca to create an slightly leathery sweet incense scent that is absolutely amazing!! Must hoard. It has a very good throw and I get the feeling has a pretty long staying power too. Oh yes, I need a bottle.
Tiresias, the Androgyne: Dark, moody, and bittersweet: black currant, patchouli, tobacco, cinnamon leaf, caramel, muguet, and red sandalwood.
In the imp: It smells totally foody, I get A LOT of sweet caramel. No sign of patchouli, tobacco, cinnamon, or sandalwood. Maybe a bit of currant.
On me: OMG it is heavenly!! And it morphs. The throw smells all foody and caramelly. When I put my nose up to my wrist to sniff (which I've been doing very frequently), it's a completely different scent. I get a caramel sweetened black currant with a fair amount of red sandalwood to balance it out and make it non-foody. I LOVE THIS!!!
It has very good throw and medium wear time. I wish I would have brought some with me to work to reapply.
A bottle of this is definitely needed.
I got decants of the Tikis that didn't appeal to me too much, and bottles of those that did. The verdict? Most of them didn't work at all on me.
Tiki Queen: Smelled like Bubbleicious Bubblegum on me. I guess that's not bad, but it wasn't what I wanted to smell like.
Tiki King: OMG coconut heaven in the bottle!!! And on me, it turned into a very weird lemony coconut, but the sweet turned to bitter and wasn't all that great. Damn.
Te Po: Smelled like the cherry syrup they put into Cherry Coke. And then upon drydown it was a combination of artificial cherry syrup and red hots. This might be great if I was 12, but it wasn't for me.
Marae: I had high hopes!!! But alas, it smelled like very faint baby cologne on me. Bah.
Boo Bam: Meh
Blue Fire: artificial blueberry explosion??? I'm keeping it to give it a second shot because I really wanted to like it!!!
Moai: Nasty ashes, ick.
Rangoon Riptide: Meh
Tupapau: Meh
The few that worked:
Screeching Parrot: Delicious apricots and pineapple, and some pomegranite too. Yay!
Upa Upa: Oh yes! Coconut and vanilla, and they don't go all weird. Heaven!!
Moana: It's very ocean-y clean.
Opuhi: Delicious!
The Torture Queen: White amber, vanilla musk, white tea, ambergris, gardenia, and chrome.
In the imp: With such a name I was expecting a dark scent, but this is light and bright. It is a beautiful blend of tea, gardenia, and ambergris.
On me: A very fresh scent. I get a hint of ambery vanilla? The Gardenia and white tea are prominent and do smell lovely together. Unfortunately my skin seemed to love it, so it swallowed up the scent very quickly. Throw was light. I'm on the fence on this - I wish it had more staying power.
The Parliament of Monsters: Dust, incense, wet tobacco, and a curl of opium smoke.
I decided to wear it today for the first time, sniffed and wore it without looking at the notes. This makes the review a bit more amusing.
In the imp: Delicious sweet incense with a touch of opium. Totally a Mia scent.
On me: Wet, I got sweet opium incense. As it started drying though, another note became very prominent. It was familiar but I couldn't figure it out, other than it smelled kind of boozey. As I was driving to work I figured it probably wasn't good that I was going to show up smelling like booze, but it was already too late. The first thing I did when I got in was check the notes - tobacco! I've been smelling tobacco! By this time, I smell like tobacco and that's it: no dust, definitely no incense, no opium. It's a sweet wet tobacco thankfully, and not tobacco smoke....so it doesn't smell bad, but its definitely not something I want to smell like. Especially not when I'm a 3 hour meeting with people who were probably very confused at my scent.....
Several hours later the tobacco has thankfully faded away and I now smell incense and opium again.
This is definitely not a scent for me.
The Organ Grinder: Almond milk, sarsaparilla, tobacco smoke, black patchouli and white pine bark.
In the imp: A delicous almondy scent, though not as strong of an almond as those with almond oil. I also get some sarsaparilla and pine bark, but this is so well blended I can't pick out the other notes.
On me: Better than in the imp! A beautiful almond/woodsy scent. For about half an hour/45 minutes that is.
It then decided to turn into disgusting SOURED MILK! About as bad as Milk Moon 07 - ick. Thankfully the throw still smells pretty good, and I only get strong soured milk upon sniffing my wrists, but it's awful. And I can't seem to wash it off, so I'm stuck with it. And I can't smell too closely because it makes me nauseous.
So far it seems determined to last on my skin all freaking day. This is not nice.
The Illustrated Woman: Skin musk, smoky vanilla, pine pitch, patchouli, Indian resins, golden honey, and tobacco.
In the imp: Honey pine? Not sure about this one...I tend to turn pine into Pine-Sol!
On me: Oh this works!!!! The skin musk and honey pop on my skin and blend so beautifully!! The vanilla is right under them, with some resins to keep it company and give the honey a bit of spicey kick. The pine fades away, although I do occasionally get a whiff of a teeny bit of pine, no Pine-Sol though - thankfully.
This is an absolutely lovely blend and I most definitely need a bottle.
The Grindhouse: Florentine iris, red musk, mimosa, magnolia, Damascus rose, clove, and vanilla bean.
In the imp: OMG it is love at first sniff. A lot of musky mimosa, and some yummy magnolia to blend in beautifully. All of this is softened up by the vanilla.
On me: Wet, I smelled like a sexy dirty brothel - love! And then it goes limp. It has a very light throw, and loses the muskiness that I loved in the imp so much. I get very faint vanilla and gardenia, maybe a bit of musk, but I can hardly tell. This was very disappointing.
The Flower Song: Pomegranate wine, lotus root, river reeds, hyssop, and barley.
In the bottle: Not floral, as the title would suggest. I get sweet pomegranite and lotus, with something else I can't identify (I don't know what hyssop and barley smell like).
On me: Oh this scent was made for me! The predominant notes are pomegranate and plum (no plum listed, but it smells like plum to me), with deliciously sweet lotus root and river reeds right behind them. I'm sure the hyssop and barley are there, I just don't know how to find them.
This is exquisitely blended, and works wonderfully on me. This was a last minute, unsniffed add on a whim even though most of the Lupercalias didn't do much for me. I'm so glad this fell into my shopping cart!
This seems like a good idea. Right now I'm randomly throwing in BPAL review in my livejournal and most likely boring most of my friends list. This way I can keep my reviews organized.
I'm still new at this, so it's still hard for me to pick up specific notes because I'm not familiar with a lot of the notes that aren't super common (like rose or lavendar). But little by little it's getting easier...
The Blood Garden: Blood accord, bitter clove, English ivy, Tempranillo grape, red currant, oak, leather, blackberry leaf, and ginger lily.
In the imp: Dark, dry, sort of incense?
On me: It blooms!! Blood accord seems to be the base. The tempranillo grape and red currant sweeten up the dryness of the oak and leather, which I cannot detect once it's on my skin. Oh, and blackberry too! This is so dark and yummy. A must have.
The Blockhead: Rusted metal, leather, and a pop of pink bubblegum.
In the imp: Bubblegum!!!
On me: This ended up smelling a lot like Jailbait on me. A whole lot of bubblegum and a bit of a metallic quality that makes it smell like the soda: Materva. It had a very light throw and my skin swallowed it up, so for this kind of scent I'll stick with Jailbait.
Temple Viper: Snake Oil with sugar cane, frankincense, champaca, opoponax, labdanum, and hyssop.
In the imp: Definitely getting a lot of Snake Oil from it, but it's sweeter and darker. I can't identify individual notes, but I can smell the sugar cake, frankincense, and champaca adding to the blend.
On me: This has to be the sexiest perfume I have ever worn!!! Sex in a bottle. It's Snake Oil, but different. Deeper, darker, definitely getting the sugarcane. The frankincense gives it a touch of incense without making it incensey. The champaca adds more spice to it. The opoponax makes this more vanilla-ey. So this is snake oil, only better and waaaaay sexier!
I think I need 2 bottles of this one!!!!
Swadhisthana: Sacral:
The Glory of Vishnu, The House of Varuna, One’s Own Abode
The Six-Petaled Lotus.
The unconscious, the sweetness of life, desire, pleasure, sexuality, procreation, emotion.
Swadhisthana is the manifestation of passion, the reconciliation, balance and union of the masculine and feminine within ourselves.
In Swadhisthana, we learn to give and receive pleasure. It is the stimulation of the life force, the basis for life itself, and our force on the physical plane.
In this chakra, our samskaras are cloistered, and in this chakra they find expression.
Because of the highly sexual identification of this chakra, many find its temptations and trials very difficult to overcome.
**This is the first Chakra that I've tried, and WOW! I need to try more of them.
In the bottle: A deliciously dark incense blend, very sensual and unique. The reviews say floral and/or citrus? But I got none of either one. I did get a bit of an iodine type of smell too.
On me: Whoa. Well, it works, it is very sexual! On me this was a very sensual incensey blend with a sharp something that my nose couldn't identify (the iodine-ish type smell, but not in a bad way).
At one point (once the chakra started working...), it turned into waffles with a super strong throw, and then went back to being incensey without any waffle traces.
I'll have to reserve this one for special occasions.
Sunrise With Sea-Monsters: Ocean mist, kelp, ambergris, amber, white pear, osmanthus, freesia, and seafoam accord.
In the imp: Lots of delicious ocean mist, a bit of kelp, and the seafoam. Not detecting any freesia, pear, or amber in this.
On me: I definitely feel the humor in this, I can visualize funny looking sea-monsters splashing around. This is wonderfully blended, as I can't pick out any notes in particular. It definitely reminds me of the ocean.
Stormclouds Over the Midway: Thunder-charged ozone, plum-colored incense smoke, opium tar, and wormwood.
In the imp: dark, broody, incensey.
On me: Midnight on the Midway's more sinister cousin. The incense is sweet with the plum, but it gets all dirtied up by the opium tar and wormwood. This is a dark burgundy feeling scent. It has a pretty strong through and very good staying power.
It's what I wanted Blood Phoenix to be, and has a similar feel to Midnight Kiss. This is definitely a must have!!
Spider: White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime.
In the imp: sweet masculine goodness. Indistinct notes, but it smells wonderful.
On me: First, I "blind" tested, as I grabbed the imp without looking at the notes. This has vetiver and it doesn't smell like rotted spinach!! Yay!!
On me: A very beautiful masculine sexy scent, and it smells wonderful on me. The ginger and bergamot work beautifully together, and I believe I'm getting some King mandarin too. No lime in sight, but that's good because citrus usually goes weird on me.
This one is a major shock - it's got vetiver AND lime and it still smells freaking awesome on me!!! I think me needs a bottle of this. There is something femininely sexy to me about wearing awesome smelling masculine scents.
Lust! Oh yes. And I usually don’t like patchouli. Do I smell coconut in here? I believe I do.
Jailbait - I like it, but it smells like Materva (soda) with a little bubblegum! This might be a Cuban/South Florida thing.
Lilith - I can’t pick out anything but I LIKE!
Blood Countess - Fruity and Floral? But I likes!
Obatala - a coconut that works!!! Oh this is delicious!! It's everything I wanted the Tikis to be.
Dirty Viking (HAEE)- Mint or eucalyptus? This will be good for hangovers.
Voodoo Punani (HAEE) - holy crap! More, now, please.
Skuld - OMFG my nose had an orgasm! This is up there in all time favorites. I must have buckets of this, and I’m so happy this is GC!!!!!
Golden Priapus - Amber, juniper and vanilla all in one? And pine that doesn’t smell like cleaning fluid? yay! The pine reminds me of Christmas, this will be a great holidays scent.
13 - I want to eat myself!!
Snake Oil: By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
In the bottle: It smelled weird. A funky bitter spice, no vanilla at all. I sniffed it at different times thinking it was me, the moment, etc. Nope, still weird. Knowing all the rave about it and loooooving the entire Snake Pit, I decided to still give it a shot.
On me: At first it was the same weird smell. And then it dried down to a lovely spicy vanilla. The spice toned down a bit, which took the bitter edge off while still leaving a lot of spice. And it blended really well with the vanilla to make it a very warm spicy scent. As the day goes by it's smelling different, I can't pinpoint it though. I think I want to buy a bottle and age it, since apparently it is better aged.
Resurrection of the Flesh: Frankincense, hyssop, heliochrysum, ylang ylang, copal, angelica, and rose geranium. Featured in the Salon: detail of the fresco.
In the imp: WoW! The resins and ylang ylang blend so beautifully together. A quick test tells me this will be a favorite.
On me: a delicious incensey blend fused with the beauty of ylang ylang. For maybe half an hour. And then it fades to almost nothing. My skin ate it, and in eating it the fragrance that is left isn't even classifiable. It's something, but so faint that it isn't much. I am very disappointed by this.
Pisces: Mutable water: the essence of faith.
Hemp, opium poppy, sarsaparilla, grains of paradise, passion flower, wisteria, Irish moss, and gentian.
In the bottle, a sharp green/white scent.
I can't pick up any specific notes in this blend, but it is a very fresh green scent with a tiny bit of florals to warm it up some. It is very March. It lost a touch of its sharpness on me, but is still a bit sharp.
I am liking this. I don't have any other BPALs that are even close to this one, so it's good for variety.
