surf-tormented

I am trying this for the first time. My bottle has been aged. I smell cardamom first off. It's a bit overpowering to the rest of the blend. Then it smooths a bit and the fruit comes out. The pomegranate appears mixed with dirt, smoke, sharp pepper and a slight floral. It is still high on the cardamom content. I think that is where the "spoiled food" scent is coming from as the viewer above stated. I happen to like that smell though!

This reminds me a lot of Garden Path with Chickens. It's really green, but warm. Like lush crops in the summertime right before the heat comes in. It does also have that melon note that kicks in about 10 minutes after I put it on...I am not sure if I like that, but it is nice, would be great for the summertime and today when it is hot and this feels like a cool down.

It's sweet without being gross on my skin. It might be the spiciness of the blend overpowering the honey and beeswax notes. I can smell the pepper, the cardamom and pimento. The rest, like the tea tree and geranium blend into one pretty herbal note to my nose. I am not a fan of honey blends, but I would buy a bottle of this. I am trying like mad to get the final drops out of my sample and luxuriate in them. It's so fresh and inviting. This would be a honey blend for those who dislike foodie blends. It smells like newly cut lawn in the summer, maybe by a tomato garden of some kind. A bit like Garden Path with Chickens, but peppery and sweet, too. I can smell it after I close the sample, it's that strong. I love strong scents! It lasts on my skin and reminds me of living in the country. After a while, it reminds me of this thick black ice note I find in some Conjure Oil perfumes like Stiricide, that sweet ozone note that has. It's remarkably unusual!

Double post, sorry!

Smells like earth. Maybe it's the patchouli. Fresh, herbal dirt. Or wait, that's the vetiver too...I like this one a lot...it's so DIRTY!!

It's really sweet on me. Like fruit sweet. A cherry plum type note pushing out the already heavy peony note. It reminds me of a typical spring like Asian inspired perfume, not too fancy about it. I am waiting for the musky note others have talked about to come, maybe it will change my mind. It is a bit too sweet for me.

Reminds me of a fresher Graveyard Dirt, with less earth and more green. I don't get the daisy or marmalade out of this, but I do get a feeling of dirt, grass, leaves and sticks. If you like earthy scents, you'll love this one.

I normally don't go for fresh scents or would pick this one, but I got a free sample of it in a swap. It's very linen type fresh and reminds me of a green tea spray I have by Healing Garden except it has a bit of booze and cherry blossom in it, where the HG is mainly green tea. I like it, but my floor didn't. It reacts to fake wooden floor badly, like it won't come off the floor and had added a strange mark to it...it's probably only my floor. That is why I tend to not use these blends, unless it is on a carpet. A while after I sprayed it, it reminded me of fresh scented shampoo. I can't place the brand. It reminds me of a "green" smelling shampoo. I would say if you like fresh, "rain" or green tea sprays, this one would be a winner for you.

I am not a huge fan of the sludgy perfumes, the ones you have to mix up because of separation. I think that the company could mix it better or apply something to the blend to make them complete. It does smell like bubblegum on. Any pepper, resin or chocolate note I get is upon application, none of it stays around and it dissolves into bubblegum. Not overly sweet bubblegum, just a slight fruity bubblegum with a slight darkness under it. Maybe I didn't mix it enough, but at the price of these blends, I would want a complete perfume, not something I have to play with in order to get the right amount of bubblegum to resin. Perhaps this is part of the madness. I don't think it's for me. It reminds me of After Dark from VM or similar blends that have bubblegum mixed with asphalt or some other odd note.

It's rose oud. Either you love it or you hate it. I love it. It starts out a full voluminous red rose, heavy with dew then it develops a darker scent like a good oud should. Slightly dark and smokey, yet woody and almost lemony. That's the thing with ouds, depending on where the source oil is from, or what it is trying to mimic, it can smell smoky and dark or bright and uplifting. This is sort of in the middle of both of those feelings. The rose is all-natural smelling on my skin too, a bit loud and brassy, but better that than a shy violet. I even smell some of the rose greenery, but maybe that is the uplifting oud.

I get a bright metal note with a hint of absinthe herbs. As it dries, the rockrose comes up. Its presence adds a woodiness to the blend, plus now it's a little bit like stone too. So metal, absinthe, stone...doesn't get better than this. Oh wait, it does. It's really green too, fresh yet metal. Then comes the smokey note about 30 minutes in. I get no sweetness, so the honey note must be blending in perfectly with the smoke. It's dark, exotic and lovely. Plus, odd in its own way...again, unique. Glad I got a 1/3 bottle of this in a decant circle. I will love each drop. It's an unique blend, I've never smelled another perfume close to it before. It does invoke the world...earth, metal, woods, stone, plant life...which is the feel I get from the poem that inspired it.

Cinnamon Brimstone. It has the smokey dirty quality of Brimstone with a strong burning cinnamon in the beginning of it. I feel this perfume and Brimstone must share a note or two, though Brimstone doesn't have any description of notes. It's dark, smokey and HOT!!! If you have allergic reactions to cinnamon notes, I would not recommend this one.

I thought I had reviewed this one before and not liked it. I got a sample of it in a swap and didn't care for it. But I traded for a bottle on a whim because I love the decoration of this line of perfumes and now I love it. It reminds me of being out in the backyard of my childhood, where lilacs and wild poppies grew, along with the grass of the backyard and forest behind it. It is beautiful and outdoorsy. Highly recommend for those who love grass scents.

This is pretty great. I only got one slight spray out of a sampler a friend gave me as a sniffie in a swap. I did get a few small drops out of it and used it as perfume. I know, I know, I am not supposed to, but it wasn't enough to spray it out into a room. I like it. It is dark and deep, very smokey and leathery. I don't get booze from it. I am not sure this is because of the small amount I used or just the way the scent is. I am glad I tried it, I would definitely use it as a room spray. If you like tobacco smoke and leather, you'll love this.

I got this as a freebie from the Lab. Apparently they took pity on me, since I had only enough money for a bottle of In The Forest. I asked nicely for an imp of this since I didn't have the cash and they gave me one! I was curious about the ambrette seed in the blend. So here goes. It's very bright at first drop! It reminds me of being outside and getting hit with a whiff of forest like freshness. There is something dirty in the bad of this blend as well, very earthy and dark. As it dries on my skin, I get a mix of Nag Champa and more trees, in might be the bark. A really thick musky scent is there which is my beloved ambrette seed, a plant with a musky property used to mimic civet, which is what I was curious about. I think the civet type note can put people off for it is an acquired taste. It has always reminded me of a spicy pumpkin spice mixed with musk, so I have always found it yummy. It did stain my skin a bit since my skin is very light and I was letting a drop sit on it, so I guess blend it into your skin if you don't want a light bit of color there. So glad I got to try this. I feel it is bottle worthy once my sample is done!

Leather Forest. LOVE!! I don't find this blend overly masculine, but I am a guy's girl, so take that into consideration. It has an almost lemony freshness without the lemon, coupled with a shoe/jacket type leather, like a new item of leather clothing and then comes the great forest type smell. I've never gone wrong with the Bards. I have gotten this one, The Traveller and Host of the Air, those two from past years and they have all been major win on my skin. I do have pale, dry skin, so I am amp notes different from other types of skin. This is morphing to a fresh leather blend...is that possible? It is light and airy, while being a leather blend. As it dries, more of the spices come through, as does the oakmoss, making it delightfully green and black at the same time. I guess I like the scent of a faun in the woods, because I seriously adore this. I find it an unisex blend, though, I feel men and women could both wear this scent and smell great!

Weird. I get a blend of frankincense and ginger, with the apples being on the downlow, which is fine because I am not a huge apple fan. All the notes blend together for me on top of the ginger and frankincense. I get a sweet somewhat apple note on the drydown, it is fresh and rather nice, not horribly sweet. It does sort of have an herbal apple bug spray appeal about it, it is interesting enough for me to keep a sample of it around. I get no flowers whatsoever, but I'll wait and see if that changes. This would be a nice blend for someone into apples, but subtle ones...I guess that is only if they have dry pale skin like mine...maybe other people amp up the apple in this one, I don't.

Rose otto, red ginger, caraway seed, myrrh, orange peel, mandarin leaf, black peppercorn, and vanilla orchid. I thought I would hate this one at first smell, that dreaded hair spray sweet myrrh. But upon putting this on, it morphs (pun) into a beautiful sophisticated scent, much like those fancy alcohol based French perfumes. The spice of ginger, caraway and peppercorn keeps the myrrh from going all sweet on my skin and the other notes like the orange and vanilla orchid, make this a very uplifting scent. I don't get much rose from this though, but I don't care, I love it all the same!

In the bottle, this gives me a Brahmin Moth vibe. It smells so close to that perfume, though the two differ in notes. Maybe it's the myrrh and spice combo? I loved Brahmin and this one is also good. Like Brahmin, it has a rich and almost hair spray type start that gets a kick from the clove and settles down into a more mature perfume. It reminds me of perfume you'd find at a perfume store, not so much a perfume oil. It feels very sophisticated on. As it dries, it still feels like a Brahmin clone. I like it, but since I have a bottle of Brahmin already, I will probably pass this along to someone who don't have a perfume like this yet.

I'm wearing a blend of Bon Vivant and Valentine of Rome today for Valentine's Day. Yes, I know, it's an odd layering, but it works.

I am assuming A Nocturnal Reverie has a violet musk in it. It's very light on me though, I was hoping for something darker given all the dark heavy notes.

I never tried this one new, but just got a bottle in a swap. It is dirty, swampy and humid. It has an almost stinky darkness to it at first then becomes more oceanlike and clean...yeah this one is dirty and clean at the same time.

Countess Dolingen of Gratz which inspired the movie Dracula's Daughter, where the main countess character feeds on women and only women and even though it is an old movie, she seduces one woman into taking off her clothes so she can draw her, but then mesmerizes her with her ring...but it is all sort of clothed in lesbianism. Or if not that, bisexuality. I associate the perfume with the book's character to the one in the movie and I love Dracula's Daughter. I would also say Penny Dreadful, but probably in a sense like Camilla, that the gay or lesbian characters were used for a morality lesson. Blood Countess too, because there are theories Bathory did what she did, due to sadism, maybe linked to bisexuality. Les Fleurs du mal because the book has a lot of lesbian themes in it. There are other BPAL based on poems from it that might also contain lesbianism. Queen to attract women and this is made for women to use. Maybe Weisse Maus or any BPAL to do with Berlin and its bisexual and gender bending cabarets. I think the main problem here is that BPAL started as a sort of Victorian Gothic company, so its perfumes reflect that "sinful" sort of lesbianism, like it is forbidden. Viola from Shakespeare's 12th Night, Olivia falls in love with her, seemingly by mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a lesbian or bisexual perfume in the Neil Gaiman area of the perfume (maybe in the future?).

This is all sandalwood on me in the bottle and wet on my skin. But then as it dries the flowers come out, along with a smokey cognac. It isn't that loud on my skin, it seems unisex if anything, pretty sexy. Musky and resiny, without the floral being too much. It gets better the longer it's on my skin too. Since I got a tester of this, I am seeking out to swap for a partial bottle. I find this one perfect for Valentine's Day too, it's very romantic.

It reminds me a lot of the Frankincense and Clove hair gloss I just swapped for. It's strong frankincense on me, with something spicy and woody in the back that is a lot like clove. I also smell a tiny bit of rose, dampened by dark fruits, but it is very light. I don't get any lilac or myrrh, even when it is drying and on my skin for a long time. It just fades being the same frankincense/clove with a tiny drop of rose/fruit and note the fruit is dry, not sweet. It's nice either way, I was just expected lilac since i love lilac perfumes and this one doesn't deliver the good on my skin.