hopeinfreefall

How much of a difference do amber bottles make over clear glass if you store them in boxes? They would be dark then anyway, except when pulled out to apply. I'm talking about miniature bottles, to decant into from imps or 5mLs. Thanks!

I was taken with the name of this one for several inside jokes, so it was one of the Shunga blends that I was seriously hoping would work. When I opened the bottle to sniff it I was a bit sad that I did not immediately fall in love with it (which is silly since I almost never like blends straight from the bottle). I tried a bit on and warmed up to the scent, though at first I couldn't have really defined any of the notes clearly. In fact, even as it dried on my skin and settled out, I still wasn't picking up any one note that was stronger than another. Instead, this simply turned into a very yummy scent that I described rather vividly to a friend on the phone, but will sum up as "Mmm...kitty purr." I really like this one and am glad I tried it. I like the elements of sensual and soothing that seemed to blend into my skin and I think this is one that I will wear with great relish.

This blend totally surprised me. In the bottle, I was trying not to make ewie faces as I sniffed it. It smelled like ighy wet dirt. I almost just recapped the bottle and moved on; however, I am was being a Bold and Daring Sniffer tonight, so I put on a teeny bit. Wet on my skin, I was still not enamored, though it did smell markedly better than my initial impression in the bottle. After sniffing ORC, I moved on to add other scents to the numbered spots on my arms, and after a few, I'd sniff all the spots again. It was really a fun game and Ol' Roswell Cemetery became an intriguing part of it because every time I sniffed it, I smelled something different. Sometimes, I would catch whiffs of faint florals floating in the air. Other times, I would catch the more earthy resonances that are very much alive in the blend. Still others, I would notice something that seemed completely outside of the blend only to realize that it was simply another layer to the overall picture. I ended up buying two bottles of this one because I was completely fascinated by it and hope it continues to do neat and interesting things in the future. I think what I found most interesting was that the way the blend seemed to take on some of the personality of the area it was named from. After all, Roswell is full of all kinds of history and color and different things meeting in sometimes interesting combinations. There is a lot to explore in Roswell and I kept finding new and interesting bits in the Ol' Roswell Cemetery blend. I truly think this is one of my more surprising BPAL finds because going into it, I was aiming to buy it more for the "Woohoo my first Will Call" novelty than for thinking I would love the scent. Turns out, I get all of the Woot! First Will Call! Squee! AND a totally cool, surprising BPAL find!

In the imp, my thought was "hmm, that's a rather strong scent. I like it but I'm not sure how it's going to smell on me." Once I put it on, at first, I was all "hey, that strong scent worked." A couple minutes later, though, I went back and sniffed and went, "Mrr? Flowers?" So I went to look up the contents. It wasn't honeysuckle, because that has a fairly distinct scent, instead it was just flowers. Not bad flowers mind you, but flowers. A couple minutes after that, my response was likely amusing: "Berries? WTF? Where'd the BERRIES come from???" Which was followed by "War is not fruity and flowery, what happened?!" A bit later it still has berry hints and fruity flower hints, but it's not bad. Just not what I expected. I think I'll hang onto the imp and see what happens later.

Lightning is another of my favorite scents. It is a very crisp, clean scent though I hesitate to use the word "clean" because in my head in brings to mind the idea of linen-type scents and Lightning definitely does not fall into that category. Instead, it has that crisp, waiting scent of a rainstorm-in-waiting as well as the electric promise that the air seems to hold just before it rains. This is very thankfully not a perfume-y scent (at least on me) and I love to wear it. It does tend to fade a bit faster than a few other scents that I have tried, but it still lasts for a decent amount of time during a day.

I absolutely adore Death of Autumn. I thought it would be hard to top MamaJi as my favorite - and then DoA came along! I wear this one fairly frequently because it works as both a nummy scent and a mood-lifting scent for me. (So much so that when I left a few things at Darkblade's house on my last visit, she dried them with a plastic pipette that she had decanted more DoA with!) In the bottle, the scent is a LOT stronger and a bit intimidating. However, once I have it on, it mellows out and you get hints of the smoke and the earthiness of the dead leaves and hints of the spices. I'm still trying to get a better idea at how to describe the oils both in the bottle and as they dry down, but this one is fairly easy because I'm never quite sure which aspect of it will be dominant. At one point I will smell the smoky bits and at another, I notice the earthy bits and still others, the spicy bits. I also seem to have better luck with this one lingering than most. I typically do not end up having to reapply it and have even had small bits of it lingering the next day. I absolutely adore this blend!