GingerGunlock

I know "Kitsune" is "kit-soo-nay", but that's all I've got.

In the imp and wet, this blend is almost pure "incense" to me. As it dries, I get a weird scent that might be the pimento (I really have no idea how pimento smells), and then in the actual drydown, it turns into a smooth, lovely musky, incensy leather, which I really really like. After that, though? Poof! The scent grows very faint, and I really have to get close to my skin to smell it at all. Better for those days when you want minimal throw, I suppose.

On me, the Lion is cakey, as somebody else has mentioned, and actually smells kind of like soil. Spicey, sort of cakey, dried in the sun soil. It actually reminds me a little bit of Penny Dreadful, though I'm sure they don't share any notes at all, just my lovely chemistry.

In the imp, the notes of Hungry Ghost Moon are too varied for me to be able to pick out. It's a lovely, light smell, though. Wet, it's sugary and gingery and I get some of the plump greenness that I associate with aloe. However, in drydown, the rice wine (I assume it's the rice wine, anyway), turn it into a sharp, slightly sour odor. I think that, to date, this has happened with every alcohol note on my skin, so I shouldn't be surprised. But it was so sweet and light and nice until that point.

Ravenous is an aggressive, sexy smell on me. In the imp, I get both the patchouli and the orange, and wet, it's actually the orange that's stronger. In the drydown, the orange and patchouli mix together in a harmonious way that's got plenty of throw. The orange isn't a juicy, sections of orange to be eaten sort of scent, but more how your hands smell after you've peeled one, and how the peel smells after it's dried out a bit.

I'm not sure what in the blend does it, but Robotic Scarab makes my eyes feel funny and my nose itch It's the first blend I've had a physical aversion to. Considering I love leather notes, and anise, I'm going to have to blame the "lubricating oils" and the metallic notes, as this is the first metallic I've tried. Wet, it has sort of a "cologne" scent, no specific notes discernable, but as it starts to waft, it starts to bug me (No pun intended, gah).

In the imp, March Hare smells like vaguely spicey apricots. On my skin, both wet and dry, it smells purely of juicy ripe apricots. Or perhaps some lovely sugary apricot jelly that I would put on a toasted English Muffin or sourdough bread or something. No cloves on my skin, however, and there was very little throw, and not a lot of staying power. It smelled lovely, but just didn't stick around.

When I first put on Hand of Glory, I first get a sort of smooth, creamy smell, the notes of which I can't identify, but perhaps it the beeswax? It's really very pleasant. As soon as the drydown begins, the leather comes out, and for the most part, it's sort of a creamy-leathery blend on me, without any sort of heat or smokiness. It's comfortable worn-in old leather, not brand new leather, and despite the "Hand of Glory" folklore, I don't viscerally get that image from the scent. I think the sandalwood is working very hard in the background to make this scent what it is, but it doesn't come out on its own in the blend. It doesn't have much throw, but does last a really long time...I initially applied at 8:30 this morning, with a touchup at 12:30, and now at 10:30, I can still smell it. However, I took a nap, and when I woke up, it doesn't smell like leather anymore. Now it smells exactly like the unburnt cocoa candle that my grandmother had in a tin from Hershey Park, purchased sometime within the last forty years, and with a tiny bit more throw than when I first went to sleep. It's not entirely what I expected, but it's lovely. ETA: I did yoga last night, and went to bed at about 3:00, and now at 11:02 a.m., the back of my wrist is still sort of cocoa-y, and the inside of my elbow, which I checked before sleeping, is still kind of pepper-y. Very long lasting!

I approached Plunder eagerly and hopefully, because the blends that I love the best are the spicy ones. In the imp, the smell is nose-tingling and almost overpowering, a bevy of spices and suchlike all jumbled together delightfully. Wet, this smells of cinnamon. Not red-hots, or cinnamon buns, or cinnamon sticks, but the sort of cinnamon that scents those brooms that grocery and craft stores sell in the fall to hang on the door to your house. Given that one strong note often overpowers the others at the onset of application, I settled in to wait. Dry, Plunder still smells as though I'm carrying around a cinnamon broom. Close to the skin, I can get a hint of the tea and the pepper, but on me, the cinnamon is the strongest note and remains the strongest note.

In the bottle, this smells almost as though I'd opened up a bottle of vanilla extract. Wet, it's very spicey, with clove as the heavy hitter, and cinnamon there as well (a dry sort of cinnamon, like the sticks or the spice, not like Red Hots or Big Red or any of that nonsense). Typically, I amp pine in at least one of the stages of a scent, but this doesn't happen with the Pickled Imp. What does happen is what I've been waiting for since I got into BPAL: after a good healthy slather, as soon as it dries, I start getting tabacco-y wafts that I can really only attribute to the vanilla, if I really had to pick it. That's right. Pickled Imp is the perfect smokey slightly sweet clove cigarette scent that I've been looking for. I love it and I could very happily wear it for the rest of my life. It has sort of a close, intense throw. Not enough to be overpowering, but if somebody is within your personal space or a couple steps away, they'll be smelling it. I love this so very much, and will procure as many bottles as I can before the Carnival pulls up its tent stakes and moves along. (Can you imagine how freakish it would be, forty years from now, if my grandkids opened a disused closet and came upon row after row of bottles, each containing the twisted, preserved cadaver of a pickled imp? I mean, at first glance, in the dark, with the label, what else would be in this tiny bottle? Clearly, Grandma spent time in her youth trapping imps and shoving them into little bottles to pickle them, for some dark purpose unbeknowst to them or their puzzled mother or father, whose spouse turns to them and says "See, I told you your mother was friggin' weird.")

Pickled Imp. Not as much if you only do a dab or two, but when I slather a bit more, I get a tobacco sort of note (which might be the vanilla), and clove, with cinnamon of course, but it's not red-hots cinnamon. I've put off doing the LE thing, because I didn't want to love something that had a planned time it would be gone, and now I went and did it. I could happily wear Pickled Imp for the rest of my life, and it's going to be gone soon

I might be singing an old, repetative song at this point, but every single blend I try that has clove in it, I get all perky and excited and think it will be The One, and even if it isn't the one, something lovely and delightful that I will wear until there is nary a drip in the bottle. I was generously frimped this blend, though I had it on my wishlist with some trepidation. I seem to amp alcoholic notes to an unpleasant degree. In the imp, Madrid is lovely, sweet red wine and mimosa, with a depth to it that undoubtedly comes from the clove. On my skin, the wine note makes me smell as though I've actually taken and smeared red wine upon myself, much to my dismay, and looking over other reviews, I as well notice a very strong cherry or grape bubblegum sort of aspect to what's happening. Alas, it is not spicey on me, but just kind of fruity in an alcoholic kind of way, which actually reminds me a bit of sangria (which I suppose they do, in fact, drink in Madrid, so at least it's appropriate.)

Wet, the scent is deep and rich, mostly comprised of the tobacco wafting up off of my skin. It's rather sharp if you huff the wrist directly, as we are sometimes known to do, and there's a hint of the wood notes, with broad sweepings of the vanilla. Dry, I can no longer pick out individual notes, but instead have a wonderful pervasive (in the good way) wooden-vanilla-dry tobacco-y scent that seems to have a decent throw and really just surrounds me with a cloud of wonderfulness.

I like dragon's blood as a note, and I like certain leather notes that come from the Lab, but the combination of the two, plus whatever the "smokey" quality was didn't do anything pleasing on my skin. I tried it a couple of times, thinking perhaps aging would improve it, or my nose would improve, but on me, Dragon's Hide just didn't work out. Which is unfortunate, because like Eyeska, I had a D&D character who had dragon hide armor (red dragon, to be exact), and I was really excited about having a scent evocative of this.

You could try Malice. It's "Ylang ylang, clove, Indonesian red patchouli, and dark myrrh." I got it for the clove, and the ylang ylang is what didn't work out on me.

Dab a bit behind each ear, and you'll be instantly inspired to alter street signs, shake fruit from your neighbor's trees, and hide your roommate's car keys. Black coconut, gnarly patchouli, and sweet benzoin. In the imp: Patchouli! That's cool, though. I dig patchouli. The fiancé digs patchouli. The coconut isn't a foody coconut to me, but rather smells more like a dried coconut husk, if that makes any sense. The three listed notes, Patchouli, Coconut, and Benzoin, work in mischievious tandem, and make me think and feel of the beach, which is a nice thing to think and feel in upstate New York on this cold and rainy May. I'm a Jersey Girl, and do so miss the beach. It's probably the coconut more specifically that makes me think beach, because of sunscreen, but the whole damn blend just gives me the visceral impression of having been at the beach all day and then reaching the point at which one packs up to go home again. Wet and dry, this pretty much smells the same on my skin, and the way it smells is lovely and nostalgic and makes me crave the ocean.

In the imp: What the description says. Exactly. Wet: beautiful big blooming red roses, either dewy or perhaps in the rain. As it dries down, the sharpish leather comes into play. It makes me think of holding a big bouquet of red roses while wearing a black leather jacket. I loved this blend, truly, and slathered, and that's when I found out my fiancé was allergic to roses.

I haven't tried that yet, but it's on my wishlist, and I'm getting my swapable imps straightened out. Valentine of Rome and Mort de Cesar! They are heavy on the clove to me- both are LE's but fairly available. Also, I didn't get any clove from Dracul at all, and wondered what everyone was talking about. I set my bottle aside (it's now aged for two years) and just tried it again this week, and it's OMGClove! If you like dragon's blood, then I also recommend Blood. It's all clove and dragon's blood, and one of my very very favorites. Valentine of Rome, I've never seen hide nor hair of, and Mort de Cesar I opted not to buy because I was wary of the "red wine grapes". I don't like "grape" scent, per se, and pretty much everything I've tried with a "booze" note in it has amped to high heavens and not let anything else show. Blood, though, I will add to the wish list. I'm still rather new at this, and only just getting my feet with which notes I'm sure will or will not work on me, and which ones I just hope about!

In the imp: PINE Wet: PINE. Pine like Christmas trees and fresh-cut evergreen boughs to be made into wreaths, and newly-grown brighter green pine bits on the ends of evergreens in the springtime. Depending on the blend, I think I tend to amp pine, and this was very vibrant and strong and up your nose and in your face. Drydown: the eucalyptus starts to skulk around. I was unsure about how I felt about eucalyptus, my main experience with it being 1. the stuff that koala bears eat, especially on that show that used to be on Nickelodeon with the little girl who had two stuffed koalas that turned into real koalas and ate eucalyptus from the tree outside her window and 2. the eucalyptus branches that my grandmother kept in her car prior to the one she owns now. Stale eucalyptus + stale car smell = bad eucalyptus associations, and unfortunately, that's kind of the smell that came forward on my skin. The orange, notably, was absent, which is interesting, considering what my chemistry has done to lemon and to lime just recently.

I'm looking for my ultimate clove blend. I've tried Malice, The Smiling Spider, the Wild Men of Jezirat al Tennyn, Dracul, Wrath, Troll, and Madrid, and while many of them are very nice, and a few are in regular rotation, they haven't been what I was looking for. But every time there are new clove blends, I'm hopeful. Every time.

Wet, Shrodinger's Cat bears a very strong resemblance to my good friend, the Cheshire Cat. The grapefruit-lavender duo does the exact same things on my skin in both blends, at least to start. Then, Shrodinger's Cat, that inscrutable devil, turns into lime. Just lime. The limiest lime that ever limed in Limetown. And in Limetown, there's nobody there but the Limes.

Wet, and for most of the drydown, Arcana was a sweet lemon on me, lemon without any of the mouth-puckering drawbacks, but instead more like the Platonic Ideal of a just-sweet-enough lemonade or lemon candy. As it dried, a little bit of frankincense came into play, but not much. Dry, the rosemary was prevalent under the lemon, in an almost mint-like freshness that was accentuated by the kind of woody-citrus that lavender seems to turn into on my skin. A pleasant, sunny blend that I will use well in imp form, but am not springing for a bottle just yet.

For what it's worth, Cup of Death was single note, juicy lovely fresh peaches on me.

In the imp, I could smell a bit of tangerine, a generous amount of cedarwood, and a whiff of my darling Vetiver. Wet: Is that....peanut butter? What the hell? Peanut butter jelly time, that's what's happening on my wrist. I don't know what's going on. as it dries: CEDAR! Cedarcedarcedar, and a little bit of something else...the saffron or the black amber, perhaps? The peanut butter has gone to wherever it is peanut butter goes when it dies. Dry: Nothing jumps out at me as "tangerine", but there is a light, citrus aspect that happens on the tail end of huffing the lovely cedary vetiver that is wafting off of my wrist. It's been a very strange journey.

I'd liked Wrath so well that I thought I would move along to another deadly sin that I'm occasionally guilty of, but I'm beginning to think that ylang ylang and I don't get along, because patchouli and myrrh are things that I love, and red musk is quite nice as well. In a previous ylang ylang blend, I had a sort of cotton candy throw thing going on, but that didn't transpire here. I'm not really sure what precisely transpired on my skin with this blend; my eyewitness (or nosewitness) testimony would suck, other than picking up ylang ylang in the lineup as the one who did it. Wet, it went on well, and the red musk and I think the myrrh are what were the most prominent to my nose, before the ylang thug showed up and knocked the patchouli down and stole its wallet. I washed it off before things got out of hand.