sarada

This is my second time round with an imp of Rakshasa but this time I will review it!

Sandalwood and patchouli are perennial favorites with me. Before BPAL, I at least knew that I liked those in incense and anything else I could find them in. Rose, I like in smoky, woody or incensy blends. So yes, this sounds quite promising.

Strangely, it's a little too heady and sweet in the imp though which is why I didn't keep it before. Just unbelievably sweet dark rose. I don't quite smell the patchouli or sandalwood at first.

But on my skin, which loves woods and incense, it all works out. It's still kind of on the sweet side but it's like a thick dark pink spiral of rosy smoke. The sandalwood comes out last, slightly powdery, but deep, that lovely "little wooden box" smell that I love so much. Carved wood stained with smoke. I love that scent so much.

I don't need a bottle of this because I have so many other smoky roses to play with now but it's definitely worth having and might be a good catalog scent for someone who likes Love in the Asylum. It's a good classic hippie shop smell.

I admit I was more than a little frightened of Czernobog, and I'm even a fan of most musks and myrrh and a huge fan of vetiver.

This smells at first like a big dark green shambling undead goat beast in a swamp but I mean that in the nicest possible way.

I agree that the top note really does smell like lime, oddly enough. A pleasant lime, but over a base of .... mothballs, almost. A dark, musky, musty closet scent. Dad's suits from 30 years ago, trapped in time.

It reminds me a lot of Thanatopsis actually though it doesn't have the piney scent that winds through that one. As it dries down it most definitely makes me think about woolen hand-crocheted afghans stored in a cedar chest in the closet with mothballs for decades. Oddly, instead of inspiring me to think of a rampaging death creature it makes me think of a cat sitting on a pile of old linens at a great-grandmother's house.

Moth. Balls.

I'd guess this probably has civet in it because it feels like I can't quite shake this fragrance, and even a tiny amount sort of follows you around and gets into everything. If you don't mind the fragrance that is not a bad thing but this kind of musty civety smell does tend to cling on for dear life. I can't really see wearing this but it's not bad, and might have its application.

I'm really wondering if these are the sorts of dark musks we can expect in the orangutan musk, too. I'd guess by the color that my beloved sultry incensy red musk might be in this though it is almost buried by the others if that is the case.

This is my favorite of the Resurrected scents and it had been on my initial list of scents I wanted to try, back when it was a catalogue scent.

It's a bit more floral than I had expected (I thought the sandalwood and herbs would be more prominent) but the chamomile quickly takes over and this reminds me of a lovely herbal tea...being drunk in a garden. I mean, the tea is being drunk, i.e. sipped, not me. You know what I mean.

The rosey parts of this scent are a little bit on the side of too perfumey for me. It makes me think of my grandmother's dresser at first, covered in doilies and perfumes, at moments like that...but the presence of chamomile, lavender and sandalwood make that just a fleeting image.

In the next stage it reminds me of an Impressionist painting of a garden done all in misty pastel shades. No one note really dominates and some are lost alltogether (I don't smell ylang ylang at all, thank goodness). As it dries down some of the soft, powdery woods come out. Nice springtime scent or nighttime scent...or, not to be too morbid but it would be appropriate to wear to a funeral in warmer weather I think. Stately, distant and strangely sympathetic.

And it would be great as a bath bomb.

I get this one confused with Catherine a lot, not too surprisingly. The name, not the scent...since they are nothing alike!

This is a very clear, peach-colored scent in my mind. It also makes me think of opening up a box of some sort of peach flavored tea. Just a hint of that dusty musty smell you get from tea dust, with a slightly floral peachy scent.

On my skin it's a lovely peachy glow (apricot, I know, but it smells like peach to me). I love how white musk plays with these orangey peachy scents. It is a bit like something like Fae or Titania in that respect but the apricot is just a bit juicier and not as .....fuzzy.

Really lovely glistening peach tea-like scent. I like how the white musks helps it last a little longer. I wouldn't wear it very often because it still isn't strong enough for me (I prefer incense and resin scents) but I got a really strong craving for it last night for no apparent reason so I'd like to keep some of this on hand.

For Red Phoenix, maybe try layering Blood Countess with something that has cinnamon or cassia in it. I haven't experimented but I think that would work...

I'd be hard pressed to find something similar to the others unfortunately, as they seem very unique! I would swear there was nag champa in the Cracked Bell though....

This is going to be one of my most useless reviews.

Every note in this makes me violently ill. I can't even be near an unopened imp of it.

If you get sick from almond or rum scents, or don't like foody scents with things like buttercream in them, be like me and just put this aside if you get it, seal it up in an envelope and send it to someone who will appreciate it. One whiff of it and I was sick for the rest of the day. I'm sorry Hellcat, I love your name but you -- along with Jack and Grog -- are my nemesis.

I can't believe I didn't review this ages ago, it was one of the first that I ever tried.

I'm going to have to review it from memory because I can't see myself opening a vial of it again. Darkness is one of my only true BPAL enemies, and it's a shame since I don't even hate the ingredients on their own. There's narcissus in Hellion and Snow Moon, and I like those. There's opium in Red Lantern and that might be the note in RL that I like. And there's myrrh in half of my favorites.

So why is Darkness so objectionable to me? Well it smells like hairspray. Or some sort of chemical adhesive. It's just....a very chemical smell. Pharmaceutical, even. Dissonant and jagged, like static, but also stinging and astringent.

Several other scents that pulled this trick on me were Languor and Hades and they do share a couple of notes with this. I'm not sure what the offending fragrance is but I am just going to assume that black opium and narcissus together are a bad combo for me and avoid it in the future.

I keep getting frimps of this and I keep forgetting what is in it until I look it up.

There is a simplicity to some of these scents that have been in the catalogue since the beginning (or very near the beginning at any rate), with three notes, all familiar to most who dabble with aromas, forming a little trio. It still has a complexity to it though: the pungent heady jasmine floral, the medicinal lavender and the sweet honeysuckle, all do battle and one never quite dominates.

As a color it comes across as a lavender of course, shining with bits of a pale gold, which is very pleasant.

Jasmine gives me an awful headache but I like lavender and honeysuckle enough that they keep it in check. Still, these sweet heady florals are hard for me to wear. I might enjoy it in the spring or early summer when I'm walking outside but let's face it, I really just want to smell like trees and incense.

This was an early one that I tried and I remember kind of shying away from it at the time because it was so strong in the eucalyptus department. It's not a scent that I mind myself but my bf is allergic to it so I can't wear it much.

I came across some again and retried it hoping for a good clean winter scent. It did deliver in being minty cold -- vividly neon green and purple -- the violets add a touch of powder and the mint is, well, like toothpaste, but that eucalyptus is just too much for me.

It's an interesting scent experiment but I can't see wearing it as a perfume. I have so many other wintry scents now that I don't think I'd need to play around with it...Nuclear Winter was much more appropriate for me and I didn't even wind up keeping that because: most mint = toothpaste on me.

This is a great example of scent as a way to evoke imagery or to embody a particular concept but it's hard to wear except as an experiment, for me.

I never noticed this in the catalogue for some reason...maybe because the notes weren't listed, it didn't register.

But after re-reading the description, this is much lighter than I expected. My first impression is of burning candles. Or candles recently blown out. Light, green scents, something like a bamboo or green tea scent maybe, or a grassy green spring candle. But definitely that great burning wick and wax smell.

On my skin it does resemble a grassy cologne somewhat. It veers a little in the men's aftershave/cologne direction if it had a name with the word "grasse" or "verte" in it somewhere.

Bright grass green, waxy smoke and dry straw or hay are the impressions that I get. I like it quite a bit though I fear people smelling it on me may think it's just some sort of cologne because of its high, fragrant notes. Or they might say "is something burning in here?"

Despite that hint of candlesmoke it's still overall a very light scent, and not heavy or overly smoky. The dry straw and grass is a bit more prominent.

I think this would be great to wear in August or September but I might wind up using it before I get that far along in the year.

This is such a very faint scent...and as such I know I won't hang onto any, but in the bottle it is very nice. It makes me think of opening a box of fruity tea bags. Not sure what kind of tea...maybe something with peach in it even though it's plum, not peach blossom that is in this scent. Or, it's just the aroma of a cup of fruity tea brewing.

There's a slightly astringent quality when I sniff it, that warms on the skin but it is so faint that I still can't smell it. It clings a little to the end of my sleeves. A pleasant, pale orange scent. It should be pale purple but...it makes me think of something peach-ish. The ginger must be doing that.

If this was presented to me in candle form I would certainly burn it at the beginning of spring. It is a welcoming, warming scent that suggests the transition of green buds into peach-colored blossoms (plum, okay, whatever). As a body scent though my weak nose does not allow me to enjoy it except in the most fleeting manner.

A heady, luscious floral. Thick, wet humid blooms touched with sweetness and light.

Alas, I was hoping for something with a bit more sandalwood, amber or champaca in it as those together could be quite amazing on me. I'm not sure exactly what tuberose, davana blossom or damask rose smell like on their own but they must be dominating in this because it's mostly floral, with little else. It's a good thing I didn't go for a whole bottle after all, as I don't like to wear strong florals.

After the first rush of warm, panting breathless flowers it becomes a little more powdery-sweet. A bit like the sugary dust of crushed candies, sprinkled over a sun-warmed garden.

As with most florals, since I can't tell them apart they sort of meld into a generic flowery smell that I don't particularly care for, but it's probably worth keeping my imp of this around for those odd times in the warmer months where I want to smell like the gardens that I'm walking through.

I can't distinguish the sandalwood, it's eclipsed by the growth of flowers, but it must be contributing the powdery base in this, and adds a bit to the staying power.

I don't like jasmine as a perfume. It always smells like soap to me. Jasmine soap, yes, but still soap.

But if I had to pick one jasmine perfume, this would be a good contender. I's mostly jasmine but the apples really sweeten it and there's a sharp spike of that tart quince smell that takes this out of soapy territory.

It reminds me more of a really good cup of jasmine tea or a pack of jasmine incense.

On a spring or summer evening, outside, this might be a good thing to wear when I want to recreate that wonderful smell that used to waft through the air in my bf's garden in California on a warm night.

I never smell anything but jasmine and apples but I guess the other ingredients must silently be contributing in little ways, making this less a jasmine soap headache and more a gentle summer night garden. I don't think I'd wear it more than once or twice a year but it's worth keeping for those nights.

Oh, look at the color of this in the imp (I got a decant)...it's that unbelievably dark blood color of red musk. I love red musk.

When I apply it, it is red musk and a deeper, darker musk -- and cheese. What? Yes, cheese. It smells a bit like cheese, or b.o., in addition to the lovely musk.

I don't specifically smell anything boozy but there is a sourness that makes me think of sweat, which could be a booze note or it could be the skin musk that I actually liked in a couple of other scents. No sugars really stand out to me, though the musk is slightly sweet......barely detectable because of the bitter cheesy smell and tangy sweat.

Um, so although I love red musk and most of the lab's musks in general, this kind of smells like the day after a wild night between the sheets...the "Oh god, we should have taken a bath instead of just falling asleep" smell. It's just like that at first though -- the sour scents are absorbed by the warm musk and it dries down a lot more like Lust, all things told. On the drydown I do get a hint of what I think has been described as "peanut butter" but it's rather dry and not terribly sweet.

I think I'm OK with Lust and Scherezade for my red musk fix. I feel like while this might dry down nicely on me it would still make me smell a little...unwashed. And that's the kind of thing I try to avoid.

mmmmMMMMmmmm....

I didn't order this initially because I figured I have enough roses and resins around. There aren't many roses I can wear, and I have every single resin scent the lab offers. In the past I've enjoyed layering Cathedral with various rose scents, usually to pretty decent effect but this takes those experiments and perfects them.

The rose in Parlement is one that I particularly love. It is a very fresh, green rose, slightly sweet, slightly winey. It makes me think of pinkish green rather than white, but it's beautiful, whatever it is.

The resins, which are almost just like those in Cathedral, a little smoky, thick and sweet, just weave in and out of the rosepetals perfectly. It's strong, but not overwhelming. It creates exactly the mood of rose incense smoke that I was hoping for. This works much better than my own layering experiments and it does not give me a headache like Rose Cross did.

Thank goodness for swaps! The Valentine scents so far are 3 for 3 for me...and I have a feeling I'll wind up loving all of the other ones too.

The notes for Luperci made me almost insane with anticipation for this one. I am so glad I only had to wait three weeks for it!

In the bottle, strangely enough, I can't smell anything. I might just be befuddled from sniffing the very strong and potent Red Lantern shortly before, but I can barely smell anything in the bottle. Even the next day, on a 'clean slate' with no other scents to compete with I can just barely smell this when I put it on.

Slathering some on to get the full effect, it immediately strikes me as a light frankincense (even though I know that is not listed). Rather like a very light version of Cathedral with more greenery and candlewax...or a bit like Magus, but sweeter.

In fact, the greenery and beeswax put me in the mind of a green chapel...a cathedral in the forest, where dark trees form arches overhead and beeswax candles burn on mossy stones, the air faintly sweet with pollen and resins.

It is so very, very light on me though, why is this? Musks amp like crazy on me, and my skin naturally adores woods and resins.

Several hours later if I sniff deeply I can still get that sweet resin though, and it reminds me very much ofthe 1970s. I think about being a little girl playing on mom's yoga mat with natural wax candles burning and some of her meditation frankincense. It's just a very natural, outdoor smell, but it's so quiet and close to the skin that it won't knock people over. The honey is not sticky, the patchouli is not loud or in your face...the overall effect is of something you can just catch a glimpse of before it disappears back in the darkness of the woods.

Since I can barely smell it I don't know if it's going to jump into my Top Ten, but it's close. I'll have to keep wearing it and see if it is stronger on me during warmer weather or a different time of the month. It just got real cold here, real quick, and most subtle scents work best on me in fresh -- or warm -- air. I think I could wear this anytime of year but I suspect it will be a favorite in spring/summer walks in the woods.

Boy was I nervous about this one.

I was excited about everything in Red Lantern except the caramel and coconut, which terrify me and make me ill in other blends. But I love tobacco and amber...

In the bottle this is just as I feared, a sickening rush of that nauseating sweet buttery scent that sends me into headache/stomachache mode. It smells a bit like Pumpkin Patch 5 in the bottle, which I liked okay on my skin but ultimately found to be not to my taste. But I'm testing this anyway. Always test your BPAL, whatever it smells like in the bottle!!

And....miraculously, everything that I didn't like, is gone! I am left with only a divinely sweet and complex tobacco scent, warmed by amber, lifted by a faint floral and a bit of that sharply sweet berry.

I cannot stand foody scents but this is only sickly-sweet in the bottle. It's great on my skin! I can't guarantee that it won't ultimately give me a headache or make me feel queasy, but we're on Day One here and I can't stop sniffing my wrist.

For a comparable experience I'd point to Al Azif, which is another "sweet incense but not in a foody kind of way" scent.

I do not smell any coconut. But I know that black coconut was also in Snake Charmer and I didn't smell that there either. Perhaps it's just that dry sweet note I'm picking up. This is not like Elegba to me, because the rum note (my mortal enemy) is not present. It's more successful than Herr Drosselmeyer was for me because this does not have that cherry-tobacco scent that makes me feel dizzy. It's more a cousin of Perversion in terms of the sweet but earthy tobacco, though there's so much more going on in this blend.

I was all ready to swap this as soon as I got it but as of this writing I am thinking it is a keeper. It sometimes takes a few wearings before a scent triggers my sensitivities though so that could change.

And really, that bottle is just gorgeous.

In the bottle this is a gorgeous, sweet, soft, powdery floral -- and I don't like many florals, so why is this so compelling?

Sweetgrass and juniper serve to make this both sweet and slightly green. A cold, bright white floral -- sun on snow on a perfectly clear day -- but a heady sweetness that makes you want to go to sleep on a bed of satin.....in a wooden box. Hallucinatory sweetness.

On my skin, lilies and roses rest in a puff of powder. I don't care for florals on my skin, because before long it just smells like plain old perfume. But the first juicy crisp bite of these fresh flowers is really lovely, even though it becomes a faint powdery spray in a few minutes.

Alas, when it dries down it reminds me of a perfumed sunblock my mom used to always wear. This smells the way it did after the saltwater washes the perfumey lotion off the skin.

If I was into floral perfumes this would be a good one for me. As an experiment though I really like the way it smells in this empty bottle I got for sniffing purposes...it's not meant for my skin.

As a representation of Puck, this is definitely what I was expecting. And if it was just oakmoss, juniper and sage then it would be a great blend for me -- maybe with a little grape, but....not much. Civet is always a challenging note but it's completely appropriate in this blend. Does it make it something I'd want to wear, though? Well no, but not because it's unpleasant...it's well-blended and suits the mood of the scent but it's a hard thing to want to carry around with you all day. For one thing, it is sort of...pervading. A tiny little drop of the civet bouquet has a tendency to cling to everything it comes near, and once I get a drop on me, I wind up having it all over everything I own for the rest of the day.

It's a musty, musky, dusty smell. If it were a song it would be "Song to Comus" or "Coal Black Smith". It reminds me a little of mothballs, too. I feel like people would constantly be sniffing the air dubiously, saying, "What's that?" They might think it was mothballs, or something wafting in from outside, but...it's not really something I want to smell like.

I do love the earthy greenery and even the drop of grape, which livens up the blend like a dash of bubbly wine. Again, it's a great scent conceptually or as a 'sniffer', but I think that the drop I got to test is all I'll need!

I tried the original over a year ago as a frimp and couldn't pass it along fast enough: it burned my skin (cinnamon is a common culprit for that, but pepper even moreso) and gave me the whole craft store vibe, from the cinnamon. I did get a quick sensation of "Christmas!" because clove/cinnamon always makes me think of holiday potpourri and candle scents but I figured that this was a no-go on me.

So I have a few drops of this in an empty bottle now, but I like it a lot more. I only tested a trace amount, but it didn't burn my skin, and smelled really nice on me. I still don't care for cinnamon, but I love clove, and I get a lot more from this. It reminds me a little too much of "red-hots" and I can't stand when people tell me I smell like Cinnabon, but still, I'm digging it.

Actually, I couldn't stop sniffing it when I was testing it last night. It's more of a 'sniffer' than a 'wearer' for me, so when I get a little more of this to put in my bottle I will probably just open it to smell now and again, to clear my head. It also reminds me of Al-Shairan, but without the slightly woodchippy vibe I got from that as it dried down. As much as I like wood scents, that one became a little like a spicy hamster cage on me.

So Three Witches Resurrected is quite a success for me, though not one that I will probably wear more than once or twice a year. I like knowing that I have a nice strong clove at my disposal if I need it though, and the layering possibilities are definitely there.

Here's me trying Séance:

"Oh my god this is SO GOOD!"

That was upon the very first sniff. This is one of the most ALIVE rose scents I've smelled. So fresh and sweet -- almost like Rose Red but with a base like sandalwood (I know, it's rosewood, but still). It's a very juicy, sweet, tender rose....almost green. I expected something very powdery and dusty but this is completely different.

I don't think I've smelled rosewood or hazel in much else so they must be setting this apart from other rose blends for me. It's not perfumey, it's not sharp or harsh or headache-inducing the way many other roses are for me (the ones that aren't blended with musk, amber or smoky notes...I seem to need those things to keep rose in line).

This is probably the best "fresh rose" scent from the general catalog for me. And the best sub for Rose Red, which was a little too green for me anyway. Yes, yes, more Séance please! It doesn't last too long, but the rosewood does extend it a little bit...the initial sniff and first slathering are beyond compare though!

I posted this in the Snake Oil thread but I'm still amazed at how wearing Snake Oil to work today, someone immediately said I smelled like Play-Doh. I went around making people smell me for the rest of the day and no one else duplicated that observation though.

I can't believe that everywhere I go, people think my Earl Grey tea smells like Froot Loops and think my delightful perfumes smell like Play-Doh, argh! That's it, I'm making up pamphlets to hand out!

I have no idea what orchids smell like on their own...all florals just smell "like flowers" to me and I can only differentiate a tiny handful. So orchid is another one of those "hmm, smells like flowers" things for me. Hothouse flowers, though, that sort of dense, heady, not-too-sweet nectar scent that suggests humidity.

But smelling this I can probably get a sense of what orchids should smell like. And that's not too bad! It is, however, another floral that just smells kind of "yellow" to me. I feel like I must have been smelling orchid in a lot of blends I've been trying lately.

I can't really wear floral blends but I like to smell them. This does not give me a headache so that is a good thing. It's a musky, heady, humid hothouse flower but not a piercing perfumey "flowery" floral. I'm going to use this to try to train my nose to recognize orchid notes but I don't know if I could wear it. Lovely name, though, that's for sure!

The description for this one really hits it on the head -- icy, murky gloom. I've wanted to try this since it came out and only now got around to seeking some out.

As promised, this scent is like moving through a damp floral fog -- I really can't guess what is in this but it makes me think a bit of herbal tea, so maybe chamomile or other fragrant herbs are present, along with some white florals. Not the crisp or fresh kind of white florals, just a muted, foggy impression of them.

Aquatic, but choked with wilted white flowering herbs. If I was going for a late night fog walk in the early spring or summer I would wear this. While it's not "me", it is pleasant and invites contemplation.

You're my hero for asking this. Resins are my #1 favorite thing and I don't like florals.

My favorite in the catalog for resins are:

Cathedral

Penitence

Anne Bonny

Magus

Aureus

You might also like:

Sri Lanka

Dance of Death

Umbra

I found that Incantation was a very light, lemony, cologney scent despite the ingredients so if you're looking for something heavy that might not be it.

Urd is my alltime favorite catalog blend but that's more of an incensy than a resiny smell, nonetheless it is very strong...

Out of the ones I mentioned up top, Penitence might be the one to go for if you're looking for straight frankincense and myrrh, and strong. If you like patchouli plus resins, Anne Bonny is the way to go. My skin eats perfumes too...I find if anything contains a citrus it fades instantly on me, and flowers die the minute they hit my skin.

As for limited editions, seek out Midnight Mass, it is the ultimate resin scent!