sighanne

There will be five scents exclusive to Bats Day, representing the Wufu: the Five Bats of Happiness. BAT OF VIRTUE Huckleberry, frankincense, rose, strawberry, violet, and star anise Oh dear, not only is this the first review for Bat of Virtue, it's my first review. I sincerely apologize... This one is all strawberries and frankincense! I literally cannot smell any other notes in there. I got to test Strawberry Moon at the Dark Delicacies Trunk Show, but it sold out before I was able to buy a bottle. I was heartbroken! Enter Bat of Virtue. I was afraid of the plastic strawberry smell, and I have to say that it did manifest but...I still love it! It reminds me of my Strawberry Shortcake doll I had when I was little. I think the frankincense stops the strawberry from being overly sweet; it's a more grown-up scent than Strawberry Moon. Though I admit that I only tried it that one time, I think all devotees of Strawberry Moon should get themselves at least a decant of this one. It's simply delicious.

KLARA Honey dusting powder, mandarin, iris, ylang ylang, tea rose, and carnation. I ordered a bottle of this one unsniffed, as I am a huge fan of sweet florals named after ladies such as: Katrina van Tassel, Zarita, the Doll Girl, Hope and Faith, and of course Alice, who is the queen of this group. I must say that Klara absolutely reminds me of Alice. Both have a beautiful underlying base of rose and carnation, with hints of honey. I think Klara is sweeter, and Alice smells woodier to my nose (from my 2005 bottle), but they are extremely close in scent. All lovers of Alice should try out Klara!

Yummy buttery pumpkin cookies! This is a foodie dream, and though I'm generally not a foodie, I still love it. And a little goes a loooong way. This is amazing, and since it's a new thing, I'll also say that I sprayed my inner elbow and forearm (just one little squirt is all it takes), and it seeped right into my skin and did not leave any residue at all, just beautiful fragrance. It would be a fabulous thing if BPAL or BPTP were to release popular oils in this form. I think they would be extremely popular.

I tried my imp of Daphne Honey, and for two days I just couldn't place what it reminded me of. Then, wearing it to bed last night, I figured it out! Daphne Honey = Morpho (Ode to Aphrodite 2009) I have such trouble with the jasmine based scents - Morpho is my one true jasmine love. Most of the time I get the awful 'cat pee' stench that jasmine haters talk about, but Morpho is glorious. Wearing them on separate wrists at the same time, Morpho is refined and lady-like, and VERY strong, and Daphne is like her playful younger sister - candy-like and chalky, if that makes sense. Both blends have honey, and I'm certain that both use the same jasmine note. I'd love to ask Beth what kind of jasmine it is, and what other blends have it, because all the other jasmines that the lab uses simply do not work on me at all. Morpho's notes: Jasmine, honey, labdanum, rosehip, ambrette seed, delphinium, and white ginger. There are no notes listed for Daphne Honey.

I knew as soon as I tried this at Bat's Day that it was for me. It's a beautiful sophisticated floral blend, just like pretty much everyone has said upthread. For me, though, I get this undertone of a swampy green mossy scent, which sets this blend apart from all the other floral soup blends. I love florals, but I tend to respond to blends where a specific note or just a few notes dominate and the others take a backseat. Victoriana Goth is extremely well-blended. The strange green undertone is what makes this blend so completely beautiful and unique.

Well, I finally got around to putting Hod v2 on my left wrist and Hod Res. on my right wrist, and I thought I'd do a review. I'd just like to say that Hod Res. is one of those that whenever I wear it, the girls at work invariably ask me sometime during the day "WHAT are you wearing? You smell SO GOOD." I thought Hod v2 would just be a more creamy version of that. My reasoning? Because wet in the bottle it smells like a SN Butter if there ever could be such a thing. It's almost unrecognizable as Hod to me. I thought, oh, it'll just mellow out on my skin and smell like a Katrina van Tassel + Hod Res. baby. Woo! Uh, no. Wet on my skin, it's olive brine. OLIVE BRINE. And, more specifically, GREEN olive brine. I then hoped that it would morph or something when it dried. But no, I'm now wearing a dry and dusty green olive brine perfume on my left wrist. What the hell is wrong with my skin chemistry?

I got to sample this at Bat's Day, and it only took ten minutes for me to realize that it was for me. Actually, the description convinced me, but one must always skin-test. The rose is red, fat and juicy, and the orris seems to be keeping the coconut at bay (it doesn't dominate like BPTP White Rose, though there are some similarities). The musk shows up at dry-down, and it is beautiful. Though I must say that lighter musks simply sparkle on my skin. It does remind me very much of Katrina van Tassel, as someone said upthread, and I'd go as far to say that it should be listed as a smell-alike on the LE equivalents thread. I had to buy a bottle at the event, I just had to. I have an imp coming, and I'll do the same thing I do whenever I get imps of my GC favorites: I'll put it in my train case with the rest of my travel stuffs! This is one of those blends that I think was made for me. It just doesn't get any better than this; it's pretty much perfect.

As soon as I read 'library' and 'old books' in reviews and other threads, I knew I had to get this. I am not a librarian, just a library tech (sheet music cataloger, actually), but I love books very, very much. Oh my goodness, it's amazing! It does have some aspects of old books, paper, and leather, especially in the bottle. On, it's divine! It has a very raw, woody leather scent, and the vanilla makes it sweet, but it's very well-blended, and spicy, as other reviewers noted. It smells beautiful on my skin, but I think that it would also be great on a guy. It has wonderful unisex possibilities. This is a keeper for sure. It's very sophisticated, and grown-up style of scent. This is LOVE.

Is it just me, or does this smell like a lemon-lime (more lime than lemon for sure) version of Champagne and Roses? I swear that it's the very same fizzy note used and I LOVE IT. Very refreshing and sweet.

The Lady of Shalott (a GC!) is a beautiful watery gardenia , and the ginger makes it sparkle to me.

For my enitre life, my dad has worn Guerlain's Imperiale. Top notes are: bergamot, neroli, verbena, lemon, orange. Middle note: lavender, and base notes: cedarwood and tonka bean. If anyone who has smelled Imperiale can think of a similar BPAL (LEs welcome!), or, based on the notes, can come up with a good suggestion, I'd be eternally grateful!

Garden Path With Chickens (green grass), all the way. Also, The Passionate Shepherd To His Love (CLOVER!) and Her Voice (flowery meadow), both from the Lupercalia Love Poems series.

Just visited Le Pink yesterday, and picked up a bottle each of Mad Kate and La Vague. There were testers for everything, I'm sorry I didn't write down what they had when I was there, so here goes... They have a bunch of the traveling salons, of course, but no Haloes right now, boo hoo. They have Plastic Pink Flamingo and Lawn Gnome, and also Gelt and Midnight Mass from last year's Yule LEs. There were a few more that I cannot remember, though I'm sure you can call to find out what's there before going. They had just a few GCs: Absinthe, Snake Oil, and Black Pearl (I think), to name a few. GCs were $18 (whew!), and salons were $25. Yay!

I have two imps that I can't wear but seem very masculine (and dead sexy) to me: Mr. Nancy (from Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys) - Sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime. The Sailor's Den (The Salon) - Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather. Hmmm, the common ingredients are bay rum and tobacco. Apparently to me, hot sexy boys smell like bay rum and tobacco. Woo! After a quick search, I see I need to sniff Isaac, the Living Skeleton from CD (Bourbon, tobacco, dry bone, bay rum aftershave, and sleazy cologne). Here's three GC blends that seem to be comparable: Baron Samedi - our spin on traditional Bay Rum Elegba - coconut, tobacco and sweet, sugared rum Santo Domingo - an exotic, sultry blend of tobacco leaf, bay rum and heady Caribbean blossoms I will be getting imps of these, oh yes... Edited to add that I have a gentleman friend who has been having a four plus year affair with Sin (amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon), and I recently convinced him to branch out, and he has now fallen hard for Red Rose (from the Valentines' Trading Post Unity Set - Red rose buds, with amber, clove, tonka, Indian musk, fir, and tobacco). Both smell lovely on him, and Red Rose is very clove-heavy to my nose.

So, Katharina = Maud Ruthyn. Katharina also reminds me of Zarita, the Doll Girl from CD, probably because of the orange blossom. I was going through and updating my swap box, and I found and imp of Katharina, read the notes, and slathered it on. It's beautiful! I have no idea why it was in there, but it's not going anywhere now.

Cup of Death? I don't remember a BPAL called that... Unless it's a Salon, I lose track of those, especially the retail exclusives since they are so hard to obtain. It's a regular Salon. I think it's in Exhibit II, if memory doesn't fail me. It is! I'm trying out my favorites from the Salon II imp pack (narrowing down to which ones I will get as bottles), and The Cup of Death is super peachy. To me, it's sort of a dry, herbal peach, very fragrant and pretty. Here are the notes: "Peach blossom and peach tree leaf, Mysore sandalwood, French lavender, bois du rose, myrtle, and blue yarrow." Though it might not sound like it, it's extremely peachy. I can't even pick out other notes. Might be the first blend with lavender I can actually wear. For those of you who are obsessed with peach, this one might be worth getting unsniffed.

Melancholia, Albrecht Dürer. Blue lilac, white sandalwood, stargazer lily, paperwhite narcissus, ylang ylang, delphinium, and cypress. This is very lilac-y, and when wet, it's a bit soapy, but on me that doesn't last. When dry, it's unbelievably delicious and almost glowing on my skin. It's amazing. I just had no idea when I sniffed it in the imp or even when I first slathered it on. Bottle for sure.

I picked this up for a forum member at the Trunk Show, and after smelling the tester, I decided to get a bottle for myself. It's insane. It smells like fresh coffee with a little bit of chocolate and a teeny tiny bit of booze. I just got a job at a coffee house, and my friend who used to work for Starbucks said "Don't you just smell like this everyday when you get home form work?" and I said "yeah, but without the sour milk note!" It's expensive smooth rich coffee. And it's a damn shame this isn't a GC. I could enable 50 people with this.

When I first smelled the bottle, I got fruity perfume. Sort of like a department store perfume? Yes, that with the sugared fruits. It was nice, but not for me. I didn't smell any lavender, and I HATE lavender. Then why do I have a bottle with lavender? Wishful thinking: I desperately want to try all the Stardust scents, and most of the other Gaimans as well. Also, I'm a CBLDF member, so the cause is meaningful to me. So I tried it on my skin. And it's AMAZING! It dries down to a beautiful sweet fruity floral scent that I can't pick out any single notes from at all. The lavender never showed for me. A blend with lavender that I can wear! Oh, it's so very beautiful. It's so much better on my skin than in the bottle. This reminds me why it's a personal rule of mine to always try blends on my skin, rather than making my decision based on the smell in the bottle.

This smells exactly like someone's clean laundry. That may seem good to you, but if I change detergents I get sick. I walk around all day, smelling something off, and when I figure out what it is, the smell is suddenly everywhere. Oh, I so wanted to smell the tea in this! I drink tea everyday. I lived in England, I love tea. I dream about it. Great heaping cups of black tea with a little sugar and some 2% milk, overbrewed to the point of bitterness, I love it. And I was excited about the prospect of tea with the gentle scent of peonies. Nope, laundry. And not just laundry, but HURRAH LAUNDRY! Gak. Oh, so not for me.

Yep, if you ordered a bottle from the Irish update, you got an imp of Leipreachan. And that's if you ordered one or two or the entire set. It's just like when the Fruitcake imp was a gift with purchase a couple years ago with the Yule orders.

Irina has laid out the best advice for those with skin sensitivities. Replying to this thread because Red Rose (trading post unity set) in a decant got on my fingers (of course when I went to open the little imp vial) and I scratched the back of my neck and it got very itchy and red. I haven't had any other trouble and I have no intention of discontinuing wear (love it!), I just wanted to add that washing your hands when you accidentally get oil on your fingertips will help, or it did with me.

Bumping this thread for Philommeides, from Lupercalia 2009. The first note listed is Peach wine, and it's almost a single note peach on me. Very light and refreshing.

Oh, CRAP! This is exactly what I was looking for. I see no-one has answered, and I am so sad. Irresistible Bliss was the best Lush scent ever made. I don't even remember what it smelled like, all I remember was that I loved it. Maybe someone will read this and know of a similar BPAL...someday.

I can't believe that no-one has posted about Morpho (Lupercalia - Ode to Aphrodite) on this thread. Morpho is my perfect delicious jasmine-of-dreams scent. Most jasmine blends have been too strong (Feu Follet comes to mind - I haven't really given it a chance), but this one is amazing. If you don't want to gamble on a bottle, you can try the sales and swaps for a decant, but I suggest you get one sent to you before March 13th, so you can spring for a bottle. I'm definitely getting a bottle. And in other jasmine news, I'm still trying to find someone to sell me a decant of Jasmine Cottage. Will report back when I get my hot little hands on it.