Cross-posted to the reviews forum.

cordia #1 package: Aizen-Myoo, Asphodel, Blood Countess, Follow Me Boy, Hunger, Seraphim, and Yggdrasil. I have all these imps, so I didn't have to use any of the oil from the swap package.

Aizen-Myoo - Yuzu, kaki, and mikan with cherry blossom and black tea. Aizen-Myoo smells like stank on me. It is one of my least favorite BPAL oils. And it's weird, because the Lab has frimped me with Aizen-Myoo at least four times. I feel like Aizen-Myoo keeps saying "Try me again. This time you'll like me. Go on, try." And I try it, and it's horrible. It smells like the very worst bitter citric acid smell you've ever smelled combined with weeds that sort of smell like tomato leaf but four times sharper. And the scent lingers around for hours making me regret ever putting the damn oil on my skin. I know there are people who really love Aizen-Myoo, and I'm honestly glad that someone likes it. But I don't. Yick.

Asphodel - The grey and ghostly flower that fills the fields of Hades. Light and floaty, but extraordinarily floral. Like I just stuck my nose in a flower. It's one of those heady floral scents that would be cloying if it were stronger. (Luckily it's not very strong.) I'm not a floral gal, so I can't say which flower this smells like because I'm not very familiar with floral notes. I can say that it smells kind of pale pink, rather than yellow or purple. I like this better than some of the other floral blends but not well enough to want to wear it.

Blood Countess - Corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry. Blood Countess is one of the blends I knew for sure that I would like -- the plum, opium, lilac, and berry sounded wonderful! The only listed note I don't get along with is gardenia. (I wore a gardenia-scented oil in the 90s and got burned out on the scent.) And guess what Blood Countess smelled like on me? Yep, you guessed it. Gardenia. A fruity gardenia, but still gardenia. I tried it at least three times because I kept hoping that this time it'll be just plum and opium. You'd think I would have given up after three tries, but I refused to give up my imp hoping that one day my skin would play nice. And I am happy to announce that TODAY is that day! Today this is definitely a plum and lilac scent on my skin, and it's lovely! I'm thrilled that this finally worked on me. And now I know for sure that this particular oil is affected by my hormones. Now that I know when to wear it and when not to, it's officially a keeper!

Follow Me Boy - No notes listed. Hmmm. An odd scent. I'm not sure how to describe it. It starts out smelling kind of floral and herbal. Green, but not sharp. It's not unpleasant, but it doesn't seem particularly enticing to me. After a while it starts to smell a little milky and floral -- kind of like sour milk. Still an odd scent. I wouldn't wear this as perfume.

Hunger - Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. When it's wet, this oil smells dark and powerfully sexy. It's almost all black narcissus with something deep and smoky underneath that reminds me a little bit of vetiver. As it dries I can begin to smell the orange blossom. The vanilla makes it slightly creamy. The first time I tried this oil a few months ago I thought it smelled like a creamsicle. This time when I tried it, it was much darker. I like it this way better. Very nice blend. I think this imp might get upgraded to a bottle.

Seraphim - A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense. Woah. This scent goes straight through my head. It's white and sweet and so piercing it makes my teeth ache when I sniff my wrist. I'm not sure why this combination is so disagreeable to me -- the notes don't offend me individually. Frankincense often goes too sweet on me, but I can't really smell any frankincense in here. And oh great, I get the extra special bonus pounding headache from this one. Perhaps this blend is too angelic for me. 'Fraid this one's getting washed off.

Yggdrasil - The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg. A very woodsy scent. Is there mint in this? Or menthol? It's odd, the first time I tried Yggdrasil a few months ago I thought it was a very dry, light, wood scent, and I kept the imp around because I thought I might want to try it again later. I had in mind that it was the sort of light comforting scent I'd want to wear at bedtime. I definitely don't remember anything like menthol in it -- that is not comforting to me at all. After the wet stage dies down, that minty scent fades away. What's left is wood and herbs. This is much more herby than I remember. Also it gets a little powdery when it's dry. It's not the comfort scent I thought it was. Hunh. Off to swaps, I guess.