Gin

Sunbird is gorrrrgeous. At first, it has an almost medicinal smell (the lavender, I realize later), but it smoothes out to a resiny cinnamon-smoke scent.

Stinky smells very much like Burt's Bees Baby Bee products. It's sweet and gentle--a little honey, a little milk, a little powder. It's "clean" without being "fresh," if that make any sense.

Jingu Bath Oil is one of my favorites of the Warrior Queens. I get cherry blossoms + plum (YUM!) and it dries down to a delicate floral (must be the rice flower). Sadly, it doesn't last very long on my skin.

Pretty pretty! Jingu is fruit blossoms with mandarin and sandalwood. Not a lot of throw or staying power, but it's lovely while it lasts.

Ysabel Bath Oil went all wrong on me. It smelled oddly plasticky and then kind of old lady/churchy, which I guess in this instance would = dry, powdery-floral, frankencense-y... not my cup o'tea at all.

Ysabel is all carnations (and perhaps clove) at first. Dry, it's a bit rosier and well, dry-smelling--must be the cedar and the incense.

Boadicea Bath Oil is much nicer, IMO, than the perfume oil. This is rich and figgy vanilla. The patchouli, pine needles, and vetiver are practically nonexistant. Yummy!

Boadicea - Leather, oak, and vanilla. Oh, and fig. Nice and earthy without being dirt-based. I'm surprised by the utter lack of dragon's blood--usually I'm able to pick that one out right away.

Ether is very pale. Light flowers and sort of ozone-y. But also watery? For some reason, water lilies keep popping into my head when I smell this. Definitely too light and floral for me.

Is it so wrong that I want to smell like coffee? Then why am I twarted at every turn? Velvet Dogs Playing Poker is not the dreamy coffee scent I envisioned. Instead, it's wood and pipe smoke. Good, but not what I wanted.

Cordelia is very floral on me, but light. I didn't notice the tea nor the lemon, just flowers. Hours later, I think the cedar and musk showed up, but it's very faint. Meh. Overall, it's too light and too floral.

I hadn't even heard of Holly King 'til it came my way via the Champagne Sniffie circle. Frankly, it didn't smell very good in the vial or at first on my skin. It smelled like trees and animals and just not good. Dry, though? It's beautiful. Still tree-ish, I guess, but also spicy and masculine. It reminds me of Pumpkin King--like they share a similar base.

I now understand the hype. Jingo-Kogo lives up to all the good press and then some. Orange creamsicles and then vanilla musk. Reminds me of Haloes and Underpants.

Horreur Sympathique sounded like something I would not like at all, based on name alone. However, it's amazing. In the vial, it's strongly wine + red musk. Afraid, I dabbed it on. Oh my. The wine was still strong at first but it dried down into the most fabulous fruity honey wine. I kept sniffing myself, amazed at how good it smelled. Good throw, good longevity, this is a winner!

Ohhh! Oh. Semiramis Bath Oil started off stong with cherry and blood orange and I was all "mmmmmm" and then it drops back to mostly musky myrrh. A lovely scent, to be sure, but I prefer the orange-cherry blast to the musky-myrrh.

Oh, boo. I bought way too much Berry Moon. It does not agree with my skin chemistry at all. It's gone between musky berries to berry beer and back again. Had I paid attention to the description beyond "Berry" I might have been expecting musky berries, but I didn't, and expected more "BERRIES! and some musk." So, my fault, I'm disappointed, and off to swaps it goes.

I ordered Semiramis before I decided that red musk is not a note I especially enjoy, and Semiramis is chock-full of red musk. Genius Beth, however, added the pomegranate and melon which soften it a bit and make it really wearable.

Hua Mulan is mostly floral on me--musky and light floral. I don't think I smell the leather, which is a note I tend to be fearful of, but I really don't smell much of anything besides the florals because the throw is so weak. Not for me!

Hua Mulan Bath Oil is very light tea, lotus, and white ginger. It's sweet and pretty but *so* faint on my skin. Maybe I didn't use enough? On the plus side, it won't clash with my lotion/BPAL of the day.

I'll admit I was testing more than one oil when I tried this. I dabbed some on and was initially kind of 'meh' but I know I need to give BPAL oils a bit of time to bloom. I was sniffing and doing my daily stuff and I got a waft of ... what is this? I looked and it was All In The Golden Afternoon. I couldn't pick out notes, though I kept thinking ____ blossom. What blossom, I didn't know... something not quite apple, not quite cherry, but it had that heady good shampoo scent that some fruit blossoms give me. I like the smell of fruit blossoms, but unfortunately, they amp to a ridicuous degree on my skin, to the point that I almost feel nauseated. And I missed all of the good apricot, pineapple, and tangerine.

The Norns' Farmhouse goes on herby-green-bitter-sharp and dries down into pure comfort. It smells so familiar... kind of like a church my grandmother used to take me to. I know that doesn't mean anything to anybody but me, but it smelled so familiar, I nearly cried. Occasionally, I get wafts of apple, which I find odd since apple blossom usually does not translate to actual apple on me. I think this is an interesting scent, but I think it has to go off to swaps because it makes me so unbelievably sad.

Oh my, Mr. Ibis! This is lovely and light--vanilla musk and aloe. It's a nice, clean, soothing scent.

Oh, Tristran, why? Why must you be ALL ROSEWOOD? You must know that I like rosewood, but that doesn't mean that's all I want. I want mint! I want lemon peel! I'd even take some patchouli. But no. Tristran give me nothing but rosewood.

I don't remember why I didn't keep this one the first time around. Punkie Night is luscious--apples and cranberries and more apples. It's exactly the kind of apples I want, too, but without the leaves and stuff that make me sneeze or that overpower them (yeah, you, Samhain and Fearful Pleasure).

Trick or Treat came about shortly after I posted that I'd love Halloween candy scents but wasn't sure I'd want to smell like candy corn. I bought it anyway, of course, and it turned out that I really didn't like smelling like candy corn. It was a bit corny and I swapped it. Four years later, I tracked down a decant and I'm in love. I don't know if it's the aging or that I missed it the first time around, but now I get brown sugary, sugar cookie/snickerdoodley goodness. No corn in sight. I can't wait to get the '09 version.