butcherbaby

i received this one as a frimp. i wouldn't have picked it myself just because of the wine note- they tend to go very sour on me. but, it smelled lovely in the imp so i figured i'd give it a try. at first it was just what i expected....rancid sour fruitiness, with some floral, accented by pungent rose. ugh! but then it starts to warm up, and blend....and i get a GORGEOUS throw of rich ripe red fruit and incense. it's INCREDIBLY lovely! what was i thinking? then, right as i am loving it to death, it completely disappears. i mean, all gone, nicht, nein, nada- no scent at all, not a trace to be sniffed even up close. in slightly less than an hour it's as if i hadn't put on anything at all. WTF? i've already swapped this one to a better home, but now i am second thinking that. i might get another imp and try again. *sigh*

from the description, this is one i wouldn't have picked because it sounds like it would be too faint and light for me, lighter scents tend to be devoured by my insatiable body chemistry. but then i got a frimp with one of my ebay orders, and i figured i'd try it. boy i'm glad i did! this scent is gorgeous! it's much stronger than i expected it to be, and *very* long lasting - on my first try i could smell it hours later, and even the next day the faint echo of it remained on my skin. my first impression in the imp was one of sweetness....sweetly sugary florals. this is not cloying on me than the sugar in Hope. the first time i applied it i got sweet florals that started heavy and then tapered down to a steady but not overpowering throw. . i applied it today (a different time in my cycle) and am getting more of a heavy vanilla with something else underneath...musk? floral? can't quite tell, but i like the way it changes with my chemistry. after a bit the vanilla scent settles down and the florals are making their appearance again. i don't get any linen or dusty smells myself. this is more in the line of vintage white fabric (petticoats and corset covers? a wedding dress? i get the distinct impression that they are an age-faded white) lovingly stored in a hope chest along with some scented hankies, faded bouquets, and perhaps a slightly leaky bottle of a once favorite perfume, so everything takes on a little of the scent of each. very lovely, and sure to be a big bottle purchase soon.

osun is quite simply gorgeous. a beautiful rich warm honey with a spicy, almost medicinal undertone. on, this develops into an amazingly potent scent with quite a throw an exceptional lasting power- i could still smell it on my skin the next day. there's not much else to say- the scent starts out warm, spicy, sweet, & golden and does not really change during wear. i'm buying a big bottle right away and i think this is going to be a basic always-wear scent.

ah, inez- how do i love thee? enough that i'll be buying at least two bottles! picking this one was pretty much a no brainer, as most of the notes are ones that i love to death. i was not wrong. this smells like candied incense, but without being foody in any way. everything blends perfectly to a delicious sweet, smoky, spicy, and yes VERY SEXY scent. i can imagine it's namesake lounging on a velvet fainting couch, long silk skirts flowing to the floor, hair & bodice slightly disheveled, and langourously picking at fresh ripe fruits & drinking honeyed wine as she waits for her next client. my only question is what such a lovely & wicked courtesan is doing slumming it at the carnival whorehouse instead of seducing courtiers & noblemen.....fulfilling a secret and naughty wish to see how the regular working girl lives, or a convenient hideout after a one of her cunning intrigues failed? we may never know....but we can thank our stars that she's willing to share her most lovely scent with us.

mmmm.....this one's lovely...and quite a morpher too. in the bottle it smells green. a little greener than i usually like, but with something behind it not usually connected with green in my mind. yes, there's a floral tone to it, but something else- a hint of warmth, spice maybe? wet, it retins that light greenness, but the floral is peeking out too. i smell the honeysuckle more than the jsamine. still a little greenish for me, though...and it seems really light. as it dries, the musk & benzoin start to come forward, and give it an exotic, incensy smell. mmmm, i do love me some incense! the florals are still there, very creamy and melding perfectly with the more exotic scents. by this time i can't reqally detect the mossy greens by themselves, but i am sure they are adding some herbal tone that my nose is just not sophisticated enough to grasp. i'm really amazed at the gentle beauty of this- i normally like my scents strong and in yer face. this has all the musks, resins, and florals i love, yet it's not overpowering at all. most of the lighter scents i've tried -even pretty ones- don't have that musky incense quality at all. this is like smelling a lovely incense that is in another room, and you are getting the lighter wafts that drift in rather than the full smokiness. my initial impressions are that it is too light for me, but i applied a second layer to write the review and it is more noticable now...and it really smells good. it seems to bloom even more as time goes by. not sure of the staying power just yet, but if it lasts this will be a big bottle for sure. i'd like to have an exotic musky scent that is light enough to wear when a heavy one might not be appropriate. 8/8/08 ETA gave this a chance to settle and blend and tried it again. it is even more beautiful now! it reminds me of of something old fashioned yet quite exotic- a perfume that theda bara, pola negri, or allla nazimova might have worn. it's more intense now and i LOVE IT. and it lasts a good long while. big bottle? hell yeah...make that two while you're at it.

this is a gorgeous, deliciously sweet and fruity scent. the apricot smells exactly like a perfect, just *slightly* overripe fruit, warmed by the sun, pulled freshly off the tree, with the juice running down your chin and hands. aaaannd it lasts all of about 45 minutes on my skin. DRAT! i'll probably give it another try at a different time of the month, but sadly, i feel like this one's going to end up in the swap pile. :-/

bought a partial bottle of this on ebay, since i wasn't too sure how it would work. most of the notes are right on for me- poppy is a sure fire winner, lilies usually get along very well with my chemistry, and i love musks. the labs patchouli *usually* works for me too, though not always. the nicotiana had me worried, as tobacco notes can easily turn to wet stale ashtray on me, and fruits are always iffy, either fading right away or turning 'sour'. besides that, several of the CD blends i thought would be no brainers sdue to the notes either smelled awful or just blah on me. i'll go ahead and say right now that this one is an exception to the CD rule- i LOVE it! in the bottle it *is*, as some people have said, a little reminiscent of department store perfumes. however, i also detect a creamy beauty which i have some to recognize as the poppy. on, i am quite pleased, for some reason, by the darkness of the oil. it is reminscent of motor oil or brackish water, but i like it. and the scent is gorgeous as well. i can't detect the fruit or tobacco at all, but the poppy, lily and musks i can detect even though they are doing their magic and blending almost seamlessly. aftre some time of wear, i get a creamy smokiness, rather like incense though i haven't ever smelled one quite like this. the throw is great, and it lasts VERY well on my scent suctioning skin. and it doesn't 'morph' so much as just keep getting more complex and lovely. i'm probably going to buy a 'backup' bottle of this (i have a feeling it will age VERY well), and search for a few more decants to fill this bottle.

The dry, glorious warmth of the Savannah. A golden, spiced amber, proud, regal and ferocious. wow...this is such a lovely, complex scent! in the imp, this is warm, spicy, golden. on my skin, the spices amp *just enough* to make me think of warm spice cakes, or the aroma they would put off when baking. it's not a foodie scent, per se- but whatever spices are at work here are very much, to my nose, the kind that would be employed in baking, or perhaps indian food. i usually amp spices to high 'red hots' heaven, but here they stay well in check, and there is an almost honey or syruplike sweetness behind it, actually, almost raisiney, the amber maybe? it's so weird to keep getting these food-LIKE scent associations, when it doesn't actually smell like food. this doesn't morph too much on me, and has a good throw with medium lasting power (on the skin that eats perfumes like crazy, at least) this one, though fairly simple, stands out as something quite different than anything else i have tried so far, and is a sure big bottle purchase in the future.

this scent is exquisite! this is what i was hoping/expecting spellbound to be like, until it went all rose crazy on me. in the imp, the rose smells fairly astringent, so i feared the pungent rose explosion i usually get. but not this time! wet, the rose is strong, but it's the scent of a velvety deep red blossom in full bloom, and it stays true. 15 minutes in the incences come into play. it's all very lovely and blends well. it has excellent throw and staying power. my roommate walked by on my first try of this and asked me "what are you wearing? it smells like magic!" ' since i am always thrilled when a lab rose blend works on me, this is already on my big bottle wish list :-)

the description of this sounds really lovely. in the imp it smells very sharp & vinegary. on my skin this is- what the hell- PICKLE juice? eeyew! now it's fading to that more spicy kind of pickle juice, like they use for pickled eggs or something. not delightful at all :-( 15 min later i'm getting some sweet floral underneath, and a greenish scent, but the pickle scent is still predominant. and i think i might not like tuberose, though i'm not really sure what it smells like. wash off and straight to swaps.

bought an imp of this from another forumite on a whim....and boy did it pay off! i think i've found a new favorite, and it's one that's a lot different than most of my usual suspects. in the bottle i gets the vetiver-y burnt grass but also sweet spicy resin. it smells dark, and thick, much more so than it looks - in the imp it is a golden syrupy colr with medium viscosity, but it seems like it should be like blackstrap mollasses. on my skin, i INSTANTLY love it. the burnt grassy scent of the vetiver is blending wonderfully with the black myrrh, which on me turns beautifully spicy-sweet while still being very dark. this is not an in your face scent but it still has quite a presence. i can tell my scent-slurping chemistry is going to be hanging on to this for hours. after a couple hours, it's even more lovely. the myrrh just keeps deepening and well, expanding. i don't know if it's exactly morphing but it just keeps getting more complex. every now and then i get a fleeting yet distinct BBQ like whiff of the vetiver but for the most part it's just giving the myrrh a rich smoky deepness that i am just in love with. i'm going to try this on the man when he gets home as well...if it doesn't sweeten up too much on him he'll love it as he is very into smoky & burnt BBQ/bonfire smells. big bottle? definately! i thought that the moment i put it on and after wearing it, the deal is sealed.

i am not a particularly big fan of fruity scents, mostly because 99.9999999999999999999999% of them smell fake & disgusting and nothing like the real thing (real thing = awesome- there's nothing like the smell of a fruit heavy farmers market, on a blissfully sunny day where the warmth brings out & blends the ripe juicy nectars of ~everything~) the labs fruit notes are quite yummy though, at least in the imps- they do not always do well with my odd skin chemistry that makes civet & musk smell like baby powder and roses smell like screaming chemical ass. and if there's one fruit i really just can't resist it's PEACHES. if they serve food in (pick your version of) paradise then peaches surely must be on the top of the list. i love everything about them- the way their colors blend when they have that perfect blush of ripeness, their utterly sweet yet slightly tart flavor, the velvety touch of their skins, the feel of sinking my teeth into the soft but firm ripe flesh, & the juices running down my chin no matter how daintily i bite.....i love them completely and absolutely. and i hate most peach "flavored/scented" products i have ever tried or sniffed beacause they usually are putrid or chemical or vomity and never smell anything like peaches at all. ok, now that i'm done waxing euphoric about fruit (come to your own freudian conclusons) i'll get to the review. being that the lab has about 96576279524509 squared scents that i want to try, it took me a while to get to the "illyria" section. what have i been missing out on! the description of "tamora" instantly caught my attention. peach blossom? YUM!!! amber & sandalwood? total no brainers. vanilla? sometimea a little too sweet but never actually *bad*. heliotrope? well not too familiar with the scent note but i like them in real life so once again, super. so i got an imp from another forumite and.....well DAMN. make that double dutch DAMN. it smells even better than i imagined...and i imagined it would be GREAT. it smells just like honey soaked peaches on me (and i know honey isn't in it, but that's what i get. the only note that stands out as it's own is the peach.) honey happens to be second only to rose on my favorite scent list, and the peaches smell REAL, ripe, sweet, and juicy. so you can only imagine how happy this fragrance makes me feel! now the downside. my skin must think it tastes great too, because it sucks it down faster than a wino does free thunderbird. well, at least the first time i tried it it did. slather, reapply, slather even more, reapply again. where is my lovely fragrance going? COME BACK, OH SCENT OF PARADISE IN A VIAL!!! it's gone in less than half an hour, and i want to cry. (queen mab did this too, but that's another review.) well....that's why i don't wear lighter scents very often. no matter how much my nose likes them, my chemistry just doesn't want to let them stay. but then again. it *is* almost a certain time of month, and my PMS is extra raging right now (in other words, out of control hormones) so i'll give it another chance. i try it again a few days later. Hmm, still doesn't last worth hog's liver. well DRAT. try layering it with "O". ooh, that's nice....REALLY nice. i could get a bottle of this for that reason alone. layered with Gypsy queen? no words, just, no words....once you've already found nirvana how can you decsribe a place that's even BETTER?!? thrid try? well, almost the charm. it stays recognizable for at least an hour before it starts to fade. i'll try again at other times of the month, and also, as the weather warms up. despite the frustrating lack of staying power, i *really* like this scent and can't seem to let it go. final verdict? i love it- conditionally. not on the "must urgently have NOW" list but i'll use up my imp and probably end up with a bottle despite it's elusiveness...it's just too good to pass up. and i am more than happy to adopt anyone else's unloved bottles or imps. ;-)

bought a partial bottle from another forumite on a whim. WOW.....that's a whim that really paid off! this smells really herbal in the bottle. it's heady and potent without being overpowering- an old forest lush with trees both tender and ancient, fragrant herbs, bushes & grass, and freshly bloomed flowers. it's very green in way that i like. it's not heavy, rank, sickly, or rotton..it is the green of this huge forest waking up after it's long winter slumber- that riotous green spring smell where everything from the oldest and hardiest of trees to the tiniest floret or blade of grass is bursting with the juicy fresh scent of new growth and life. but what's this? where's that honey scent coming from? aaah, now i see it.....in one end of the clearing a group of mayday revelers are fussing over a small pot on a brazier, adding herbs, flower petals, and perhaps a mysterious colored powder or two? the scent of their warm magical honey mead is utterly inoixicating, filling the forest with it's sweet herbal scent without taking one iota from the glorious olfactory symphony the natural world has produced on it's own that's what i smell in this blend....VERY powerful stuff, Beth! the honeyed herbal sweetness softens a bit but still retains it's green sweet herbal aspects for hours. i wish this came in lotion, shower gel, hand soap, shampoo...i'd buy it all! :-) i'll now need a few more decants's to fill & backup my bottle of course :-)

thanks to a *very* generous forumite, i got frimped with a full imp of pink moon '07 as well as a sniffie of '05. i wouldn't have tried either one on my own- not due to the listed notes, but because i don't like the color pink! silly, huh? there was enough left in the imp to give it a good try and i'm really glad i did! this swings back & forth on me between a lightly spicy, very feminine floral to sweetly fruity with floral undertones. it's pink all right! pink flowers, pink fruit, pink scent. i like it very much, even though i am not a big fan of fruit scents (especially berries), this is really nice. the fruits smell fresh, juicy, & very edible! the throw on this is light but steady and it eventually settles down into a sweet fruit scent, like warm strawberries in the sun. not something i would wear again just because i'm not fruity, but a really lovely blend that i am glad i had a chance to try! AHAHA! that just gave me one of the most hilarious visuals ever! i LOL'd for reals. thanks for brightening my evening!

thanks to a *very* generous forumite, i got frimped with this as well as a sniffie of '05. i wouldn't have tried either one on my own- not due to the listed notes, but because i don't like the color pink! silly, huh? i'm really glad i got this though- it's gorgeous! in the imp it's a sweet, spicy floral....yummy carnation! i love the scent of the flower, but it doesn't always seem to translate well into perfume. it's perfect here though- rich and creamy, very sweet with sugar! i suppose it's rounded by the phlox, but that's a note i'm not familiar with so i really can't say. this isn't so much a heavy floral as a *persuasive* one- it's not in your face, but it's always noticeable. the throw sweetens even more after a couple hours, and reminds my scent memory very much of hypnotic poison, though i know they're not the same at all. either my nose or my chemistry is very odd! this is a much more creamy pink with fizzy gold sparkles scent, where HP (which i love) is more a warm translucent vanilla red. i like this very much....not a super priority but i will be looking out for a big bottle.

yay! and i do mean YAAAYYYYY!!!!! you see, rose is my absolute favorite scent. i've worn 'tea rose' perfume sinc the 80s. i buy rose candles, burn rose insense, bath in rose bubble bath, and even buy rose bathroom spray. my favorite shampoo/conditioner EVAR was a st ives rose scent untill they discontinued it, and i'm still on the hunt for a good rose bodywash since softsoap (i think) discontinued theirs. and the BPAL rose scents hate me. i keep trying them, one by one, and my skin usually amps the rose to such screaming pungent proportions that nothing else comes through, it kills my sinuses, and i have to wash it off. well, not THIS one! JOY! this is VERY strongly rose in the imp- so much so i thought i'd hit another wall. i was very sparing with my test swath. wet: so far, so good. a leetle strong on the rose side, but holding back on the biting sharpness i usually get. fifteen minutes: do i dare even hope....? yes, i am smelling the rose quite well, but there are also other notes in there! it kinda smells like a really good rose incense, or my favorite scented candle. 1 hour into wear: i am happy to say WE HAVE A WINNER!!! this has settled into a delicious warm rose, smoky & grounded, very much an insnce blend without giving up one drop of my beloved rose notes. big bottle? hell YES! two if i can find em! gonna go scour the swap & sales pages right now~!

in the imp: a lovely soft rosey floral. on my skin: goes on rose and stays rosy. unlike most of the labs roses, it stays tame and under control, but it also doesn't have enough ~zing~ to really appeal to me. it's soft & very real smelling, but a basic, bland, generic garden rose. i think it will be very good for those who like their roses not too strong, but it just doesn't work for me. nice trick, body chemistry- i find a rose note you finally like and my nose doesn't. very funny- NOT. >:-( off to swaps, where i hope it finds a nose that loves it.

in the imp i get a lovely sweet amber & musk, touched by rose- it's gorgeous! on my skin though, it's STRIDENT SCREAMING ROSY ZONKERS OMG ROSE ROSE ROSE!!!!! i get NOTHING of the beautiful incensy resins or even a hint of any other scent. this is one strong mean ass rose, and apparantly it's trying to kill me. and i *LOVE* rose. ~sob~ i have literally tried this half a dozen times to see if i could get it to work..lighter application, different body parts, diffferent times of the month etc. and it just plain hates me. oh well....off to swaps and to torture myself with all the rest of the lovely lab roses that don't get along with my skin/

wow! just got a *full* imp of this from a generous forumite who was willing to sell it! it's really, really nice. definately has the "snake oil" vibe but softer, smokier, more incense-y. i recognize the black coconut immediately- it's the note in "death adder" that made it go off on my skin (it kind of smells like burnt grass to me), but here it is delicate enough to just add a nice smokiness. i don't know if i'd pay eBay prices for this, but i will wear this for sure and would buy a couple bottles if it were ever ressurected (beth- hint hint) ;-)

in the imp: a refreshing, lightly medicinal rose on my skin: screeching sharp biting pungent ROSE ROSE ROSE!!!!!! *sad* i don't know why most of the labs rose scents amp so disturbingly on my skin. i LOVE rose! but the lab's roses don't love me. oh well.... the few that *do* work are really gorgeous, so i'll keep going til i've tried every one.

i am so happy with this scent, it's beautiful, and a total winner! in the bottle, the rose, jasmine and myrrh are predominant. it's a lovely combination, very sweet and inscensy. after i slather it on, i get the smell of...baby oil? but not the cheap johnson's kind. this is high end baby oil imported from france or someplace equally snobby & refined, and seasoned with a lovely blend of floral and spices. it is deceptively light and soft, but slowly strengthens and gets spicier as it warms & dries. the musk is warm and sweet without being too strong (not like that is possible for my musk loving skin, ha.) the throw is steady but not overpowering, and it doesn't get eaten by my especially scent hungry PMS-ing skin. also, my skin does not amp the roses into the sharp screeching medicinal pungency that a lot of the lab rose oils tend to. it lasts for a good five or six hours before i wash it off to try another scent in my huge pile o' imps. this ends up being a beautiful resiny/insence/musky floral, very 'harem-y' without being too overpowering, which will be awesome for the warm spring & summer weather. going on the big bottle list for sure!

i hadn't read any of the reviews of this before wishlisting it, as i picked it out on notes alone. aaand...i totally lucked out! this is really gorgeous! i am one of the lucky ones who can wear civet without smelling like pee/poo, am not overpowered by heavy musks, and LOVE opium. the blend of these three notes here is amazing. it does have that 'opium den' incense & resin smell, but it also has a delicious syrupy sweetness and from somewhere, LOTS of spice! i am actually quite thrilled by the spiciness. real spice notes (cinnamon, saffron, ginger, clove, pepper) tend to amp to gaggingly overpowering levels on me but whatever is giving the spice note here is just the perfect amount- this is how i WANT the other spices to smell! this is a warm golden reddish bronze scent, that if i had to put a visual to, it would be a harem full of gorgeous women drinking mead & smoking opium while slathered in rich musky unguents & fragrant oils, and eating crispy, hot from the oven spice cakes dripping with thick golden brown syrup. yeah, i get "sweet food" impressions where everyone else gets animal, sex, and toilet scents. then again even "czernobog" smells sweet & delicious on me. this ones a winner, and going on the big bottle wishlist for sure.

now that i know i can wear the lab's patchouli, i've included more of those in my wishlist. i was eager to try this because of the two note simplicity of the blend. in the vial it's earthy- VERY earthy. it smells like rich black loamy soil, freshly turned. hmmm....getting very little apricot here at all. wet, the earthy smell is overpowering. i am getting a little apricot now. drying, the apricot is coming to the fore and i get delicious whiffs of it every now and then. it smells juicy, thick, a bit tart at times. it's lovely! unfortunately for me, the black earth smell of the patchouli is what i get more of. it's not so bad in the throw, but closer sniffs of the wrist actually find it turning my stomach a little. an odd reaction, because i don't actually *dislike* the scent so much as feel it's just not very "me". i'm going to let my husband try it before i add it to the swap pile. he loves earthy smells and they work for him. if it comes out as strong on him as it does me, it'll be a sure winner. we'll see though, our chemistry is so different that when he tried goblin he felt it was too feminine, while on me it smelt just like a brand new black rubber tire. LOL. the apricot is a different story here. it's so enticing that it's encouraging me to look for & experiment with other blends that contain it. i love when trying a BPAL opens up a whole new avenue of scent, as i am normally not a 'fruit' person but i've found certain fruity lab scents that work really well on me. it's a nivce change- i can't smell like an incense shop or harem all the time! :-)

bought a partial imp of this. i can't believe it was discontinued! it's a beautiful scent, reminiscent of "haunted" yet lighter and with a sweeter incensy touch which i am sure is the lilac. more of a daytime scent that seems especially nice for hot days when the heavy ones i prefer are too much. a lighter throw but a good wearlength. i'm going to have to track down more of this, or hope the lab brings it back for a spell!

Opium teaches only one thing, which is that aside from physical suffering, there is nothing real. A bitter, soft, fragile flower. oh.my.GAWD. all i can say about this is, i LOVE it. i mean 'i want to marry it' love it. as soon as i put it on, i recognized it as the note in pisces '08 that brings that scent together so wonderfully for me. this is beautiful, rich, and heady, and went from my skin to my big bottle want list literally seconds after i swathed it on. i've been holding off on making an order til i sniff my way through the pile of imps on my desk, but i just may have to buy a bottle of this right away. or two. i wonder how well it ages? i don't know what opium poppies smell like in real life, but i do know i really, really love that note in perfume. the st laurent variety has been my favorite for years. i associate it very strongly with my grandma because she wore it all the time, and my first taste of it was from her bottle. my grandmother was an amazing, funny, beautiful, glamourous, artistic, and liberated woman- an ex-flapper who smoked, drank, cussed, made whoopee, cut her hair, wore blue nail polish & red high heels, in an era where it was NOT ok for girls to do that, espcially in the small panhadle TX town where she lived. she kept her modern & brazen attitude all her life, wore the best clothes ever (turquoise & hotpink were her favorites) and amazingly gaudy jewelry. she was my my role model growing up and i loved her dearly. the scent association with her is positive and happy while at the same time grounded with the memory of her decline into alzheimers and her passing 19 years ago. i think i'll wear this next time i vist her grave, and anoint her marker with some. i think she'd like that.