ravenfeathers

i had to laugh at the description, because: in the bottle root beer! wet on skin root beer! dry on skin root beer! no, really, that's all that's going on here. it's a nice, light, frothy root beer from start to finish.

in the bottle not bad; the patchouli seems tame and i can smell the apricot sweetening up the whole mix. wet on skin HOLY NASTY BLACK PATCHOULI!! *cough* yeah, no. dry on skin the apricot just lurks, clearly terrified by the bloody patchouli which stays in that "dirty hippie" vein throughout. because the red patchouli in ravenous works on me for unknown reasons, i forget how vile i find it most of the time. this is unwearable for me.

in the bottle fresh, herbal floral wet on skin STRONG SOMETHING! actually, it's screaming LILAC, LILAC! but there doesn't appear to be lilac here. hm. dry on skin the whatever-was-screaming-lilac backs off a little, but not enough to stop overshadowing everything else, which is freshly herbal. must retest this on myself, as it's quite pretty in the imp and i think my daughter amps some florals (she's guinea pigging for me). when she's wearing ultraviolet, i can smell her across the house.

in the bottle herbal and resinous wet on skin soap and something a little spicy, almost like ginger. must be that sage again. dry on skin the spiciness deepens a little and it remains herbal. to me, it's a very nice soap, but soap nonetheless. my daughter likes it, so she gets it.

in the bottle smells dark green, like pine trees wet on skin there is a strong evergreen waft, but not quite pine-y. looking at the notes, i'd say that's the sage and resins battling it out. dry on skin it's undeniably masculine with a heavy but not unpleasant cologne aspect, not the clean, fresh masculinity of some of the other BPAL unisex blends.

in the bottle very sweet floral wet on skin there's a fruity note that comes up, which must be the plum, but smells a bit like lotus, sort of bubblegum-y. it beats back the floral a bit. dry on skin the musk never goes musky, but seems to keep both the carnation and plum from going nuts. all in all, an interesting scent, but not me.

in the bottle sweet and sticky, but with an "off" smell like rotten fruit. wet on skin machu picchu can't decide weather to be juicy and sweet or dry and... dry. there's a bitterness that speaks of green aloe alongside way, way, way too sweet fruits and a floral element that just about blows my hair back with its strength. dry on skin gah, i hate to say this about any BPAL, but this smells, alas, like old lady. it stays firmly in the zone of middle notes and is far too sweet and generic for my taste. i guess i should just give up on amber.

in the bottle thick, dark, boozy. yep, it's boozy. boozy boozy. wet on skin sweet and a bit cloying with absolutely tons of throw, even with the tiny dabs i put on. i was afraid of the boozy. *has bad mad sweeney flashbacks* dry on skin holy. crap. this is... this is snake oil but without the ick! that's not exactly fair, because snake oil is okay and i tend to get lots of compliments when i'm wearing it, but there's something about (fresh) snake oil that really doesn't quite do it for me. but smut does! this is fantastic! it's sweet without being foody, musky without being rank. it's dark and earthy, warm and sexy. the booziness never really makes it onto my skin, which is fine with me. completely, completely fabulous. oh, yeah, i love teh smut! eta i find that this smells darkest and sexiest when i'm ovulating and menstruating, which is odd, as i don't usually have huge leaps in chemistry due to hormones. oh, smut, why do i not have gallons of you?

in the bottle sour and soggy, like cookies dipped in lemonade. very sharp and not very attractive. wet on skin well, wait a minute. that's not half bad. the lime is strong, but not tart. it's a sweet, sticky lime, just oozing out sugar and syrup. it's also fairly dry, which is nice. you wouldn't want lime this sweet to be juicy or fresh. dry on skin it goes a little bit desserty on me, but i'm an all-purpose sweetener, so this doesn't surprise me. what does surprise me is how much i enjoy this scent given how turned off i was by the smell in the vial. definitely a future bottle purchase. indeed, it was a future bottle purchase and now that future bottle is a present bottle, so i bring mr. nancy (redux) in the bottle burnt sugar and lime, much more lime than i remember in the decant wet on skin soooo much more lime.... dry on skin sweet, sweet lime, so round and beautiful from the caramelized sugar note with a certain spiciness that must be coming from the bay rum and a dry, heady, dark vibe from the tobacco. i think i love this more than i did before.

in the bottle patchouli and something else that smells like chili powder. wet on skin there's the amber and it's nice, smooth, and sweet. i still smell chili powder. dry on skin wow. that's gorgeous! it's spicy, but not like food. there's cinnamon, but it doesn't smell like anything you'd want to eat. it's high and golden and warm. wow, wow, wow! this might be bottle-worthy.

in the bottle light, dry, fairly uninteresting. i'm not getting any particular notes, except for a vague musk. wet on skin this smells... clean. really, really clean. like all clean things: clean air, clean linen, whiteness. it's dry and fresh and just clean. it's not that it smells like a cleaner or like a drier sheet or anything. it smells very nice, if not particularly flashy. dry on skin i never do really get particular notes. it continues to smell clean. and almost saline? it's fresh and i suspect it would be very nice to wear in early summer or late spring. it's not catching my attention in october, but it's a very pretty scent and fairly gender neutral.

in the bottle pale golden and cologne-y without being sharp; very warm wet on skin increasingly warm and the golden-ness deepens to a vibrant orange-y gold. it holds on to the cologne-y aspect, but... it's not a typical cologne. it doesn't have a speck of acridness or sharpness or heaviness. it's buoyant and glowing and quite feminine dry on skin i think this is going to require a retest in a week or so because dry this vacillated between golden and definitely fuzzy smelling to metallic, like wet copper. the metallic phases weren't off-putting, they just sort of interrupted my enjoyment of the overall warmth of et lux fuit.

in the bottle brandy and rum, indeed! it almost makes your eyes water. the nutmeg is a sweet afterthought and there is a smoothness that is reminiscent of cream. wet on skin the alcohol smell burns off almost instantly, leaving a spicy cream scent behind that i really liked until.... dry on skin i had three nine year olds exclaim in glee that it smelled exactly like PLAY-DOH! oh. and it totally does, too. d'oh. this one goes to swap or sell. i can never enjoy it after being told that it smells like preschool art supplies. i'm gutted.

2007 version in the bottle this is smoother and sweeter than the earlier version i got as a sniffy. it's very much gingerbread. it wouldn't startle me to find that the bottle was full of cookie crumbs, to tell the truth. a lot of the BPAL food scents are excellent interpretations, but this is almost exactly the same as the smell of actual, edible gingerbread. it's slightly buttery and quite spicy, but soft and crumbly. wet on skin the spices are almost overwhelming and fatteningly delicious. dry on skin the spicy crumb-ishness never really changes, but the buttery smell doesn't really make it out of the bottle on me. it's a wee bit spicier on my actual skin and sweeter, but it remains this perfect gingerbread smell. fantastic and i'm so glad i took a chance on it.

in the bottle more dry and more sour. vile. wet on skin there's the wine! and it's really pretty, especially when contrasted with the dryness of the rest of the blend. dry on skin i actually found myself liking this a lot, although it's not suitably me enough to wear regularly. it settles into a dry, dusty floral with the sweet/sour tang of red wine.

in the bottle sharp, dry, almost mouldy. wet on skin still very dry, but also sour with a healthy dollop of patchouli smell. ah, wikipedia tells me that cajeput is tea tree oil. that doesn't explain the patchouli smell (which must be in the embalming herbs), but it explains the unpleasant overall smell. dry on skin this is goblin lite. i couldn't ever wear this. it's too... sharp, yet cloying.

in the bottle this is dark, bracing, and almost stutters between the various notes. wet on skin sweet and heavy. floral, yes. not sure. dry on skin okay, this i like. the lilac is the most prominant note, but it's sugary and heavy and very fine. it smells like dark, dark pink.

in the bottle it's fruity, indeed, like peaches and orange, with just a hint of something hot. wet on skin it smells pretty icky wet, like a peach that was left in the refrigerator until it went a bit soft and runny, then got dry and crusty and green. it also has a vaguely skunk-like phase that's not quite skunk and not quite wet dog, but reminiscent of both. dry on skin this goes incredibly dry when dry (oddly, ha ha) and almost smells like singing moon, but without the sweetness that SM has. the rancid peach fades to something sweet and pleasant. it goes away pretty quickly, but with a wet phase like that, it's okay!

in the bottle a sweet, sinuous floral wet on skin this is warm and very pretty. it's undeniably floral, which ain't really my thang. dry on skin this is a floral i could get interested in wearing. it's dusky, slightly dry, and warm without being spicy at all. i never get a particular note, which is okay, as most of these notes don't really work on me. they seem to work nicely together, though.

in the bottle sharp and awkward. no one note is jumping out at me, but it's pale purple smelling. wet on skin lavender! i'm mostly fairly unenthusiastic about lavender, but this is a sweet, resinous lavender that has a warm skin smell to it. dry on skin it dries down to a respectable and still warm lavender. i'd like to test this one more. i like it right off the bat, but i do tend to go through lavender phases. i wonder if this would be a suitable headache treatment with that sweet, inoffensive lavender?

in the bottle eek! almond! wet on skin my skin warms up the lily of the valley and the other florals. it goes nicely with the cherryish waft of almond. dry on skin something about the combination of florals and cherry makes this go a little rose-y on me. the cherry stays true (although it is the dry cherry of almond oil, not the fresh, juicy cherry that sometimes appears in BPAL oils). it's never foody, but delicious nevertheless.

in the bottle caramel! bzuh? caramel? *looks at ingredients again* i don't give a crap what that says up there in the description, i smell caramel. it's not the usual butterscotchy BPAL caramel smell, but warmer and less sharp. wet on skin there's a very, very, very slight floral here, but it's mostly caramel still. dry on skin sweet, smooth, buttery caramel. i only ever get the teeniest, tiniest whiff of rose in this and it's quite a green rose. mostly it's crumbs and sugar.

in the bottle i smell no rose. what i'm smelling is thick black patchouli, although i don't know why, as it doesn't seem to have any patchouli in. wet on skin dark, sour, menacing. not particularly nice dry on skin hmm! well, it's still not quite me, but it's better on drydown. it's almost powdery, like dried rose petals, but it's got a dark, dangerous edge. the sourness and reek of patchouli is gone entirely and what's left is a musky black rose, pressed in the pages of a dusty book.

in the bottle sweet, but not cloying, it's neither fruit nor floral, but both. a little sharp. wet on skin the sharpness fades and the notes warm up; it makes a huge cloud of scent around me and it's marvelous. dry on skin the throw on this is strong. people kept coming into my office and saying "wow, what smells so good in here??" it sweetens slightly as it dries, but then everything does on me. the apple and attar of rose are the strongest notes, but it's very much tethered by the musk. this is a winner and i'd definitely do a bottle of this. eta my second test of this, it lasted 12+ hours, the longest of any BPAL i've tried so far. i'm also getting whiffs of something sweetly poisonous and, guh! i just love this scent so much. it makes me feel like a million [incredibly sexy] dollars.

in the bottle yessir, that sure is whiskey. *eyes water* wet on skin um, ew? OMFG! GET IT OFF! it smells slightly medicinal and heavily alcoholic. the two together ought to smell like cough syrup or something, but instead it smells of drunk sick. oh god, make it stop. dry on skin there's something that smells vaguely of cloves in this, but instead of being a warm, spicy smell, it just smells even more like sick, like old sick, a pool of vomit that time forgot. it took a shower and a loofah to get this shtuff off and it is never going back on me, omg!!! given what happens to the mad sweeney character in american gods, i'd say this is an excellent interpretation. i shall now find someone to pass this on to, because yuck.