oatmealneko

Maybe not a good idea to try two strong-smelling oils in a row. I had Water of Notre Dame on earlier, & then I tried Nyx. Wet - doesn't smell very strong, I can pick up the jasmine fairly well, myrrh too. Rose, not so much. Dry - It smells like the jasmine & rose are fighting each other for dominance. Both are there in equal degrees & emitting a strong odor. Somewhat jasmine, somewhat rose, it goes back & forth, then sometimes smells like a mixture of the two. If there were any other components present, they're long gone now. My skin chemistry devours everything else in the presence of rose & jasmine, then amplifies those two. This is probably a lovely scent. Just not on me.

Wet - smelled the lemon right off, it reminded me of Embalming Fluid. Dry - Lemon fades away, but it's replaced by a smell I can only categorize as crisp & clean. It feels light & airy, but with green undertones. It also has that metallic-ozone scent that the others have mentioned. The florals are balanced well by the bamboo, which I'm guessing is the "green" smell I can pick up. On me, it's not too strong, nor very weak. I've worn this scent a few times already. It usually lasts the whole day on me. It's fairly strong within the first hour or two, then softens to last most of the day.

Try Port-Au-Prince. It was distinctively clove on me, before it dried down to a clove with buttered rum undertones. Yummy.

This imp came from my first order to BPAL. I bought it mostly after reading the reviews from here. Ahhh, but that was before I discovered my odd skin chemistry. In the vial, I could smell the grapefruit & the apple blossom. After the oil dried out, the grapefruit was gone & I couldn't smell the white tea or ginger. The apple blossom slowly died out over the next hour. After an hour & half, I could smell traces of Baobahn Sith on my skin, but almost of all it had disappeared. Two hours later, nothing. This is a delicate scent, & not really made for my skin. It would probably suit someone else.

Another one where my skin eats the fruits, but I love this one despite that. The mango & orange I could smell initially, when it was wet. Those smells instantly disappeared - the sandalwood took over immediately. I don't smell the white musk either. It reminds me exactly of the incense at this Buddhist church I've been to. Although, it's not as strong as burning incense, it's lighter. Lovely scent, lasts about 3-4 hours on me.

I recently got more imps & two decants from a friend yesterday. Bewitched, R'lyeh, Water of Notre Dame, Kuang Shi, Akuma, and Nyx are the imps I have, & Midwinter's Eve & Delerium from the decants. I'm wearing Midwinter's Eve right now - real good stuff. It has fruit scent in it, & it lasts on me. There's fruit & floral, almost like a plum wine scent as well, & it's so good it's making me a little hungry. ~_~ I have Shanghai, & it smelled nice for a few hours, then went a little soapy on me. I might keep it or toss it in the swap pile. Endymion is sitting in the swap pile right now. It's too overpowering. I gave O another try last night. Definitely a keeper.

I received this as a decant from a friend. In the bottle, it smelled like a sweet, tangy fruit candy. I've been wearing it for a half hour now, & I don't see any noticeable change... except for that I actually smell like fruits (fruit scents usually die immediately on my skin). At first, it's like a sweet fruity candy. Now, there's a cinnamon element creeping up in the background. I can smell florals, & maybe a wine/alcohol scent also. I haven't eaten yet, & Midwinter's Eve makes me want to munch on my arm. >_<

I will give most, if not all of your recommendations a try. Thanks for the recs!

Laurel - The only oil I've tried with heliotrope in it was Tamora, I think. I couldn't detect the heliotrope, um, I'm not even sure what it smells like. The vanilla kicked in after an hour, & that's all I could smell for awhile. allamanda - I adore Neo-Tokyo, it's a fairly balanced scent on me. Not too floral, I can kind of smell the fruit, & it's got lasting power. I want to try Aizen-Myoo, it sounds great. Cheshire Cat, also, but I'm not sure if the grapefruit is going to last on me. I'll have to give O another try, I probably shouldn't have tried it after I had Jack on. i washed Jack off, but it was still...@_@ I'm halfway interested in Dana O'Shee, but I don't want to smell like food. Or if it's too sweet-smelling, I get a little nauseous. Wow....that's a long list...

I have tried a few scents from your wish list, with mixed results. Jack didn't work for me, it smelled disgusting. Some of the light florals (Rosalind, Maiden) turned soapy after two hours. Mint is sort of hit or miss on me. Either I can barely pick it up or it smells weird. Lotus doesn't last that long on my skin. Well, sort of. Black Lotus doesn't, Blood Lotus does, & I'm not sure why. Hmmm..Lighting sounds interesting. Forbidden Fruit was another I wanted to try. A friend suggested Chimera after I told her how much I loved Old Port-Au-Prince. I also want to try White Rabbit. I like the smell of tea.

I'm looking to try some more BPAL scents, & I've been able to narrow down what I want. I would like to avoid anything that has either rose or jasmine in it. If an oil has rose even as tertiary ingredient, it will be guaranteed that I will not be able to smell anything else but ROSE on my skin. Ditto for jasmine. Unless they're both in the same oil, then the jasmine will lose to rose. My skin tends to pull rose/jasmine in front of firing squad & make it perform. I applied some Ligeia on my skin this morning, which has jasmine, juniper berry, & rose geranium in it. All I could smell was ROSES. I like scents that smell fresh & crisp, but also ones that are spicy/creamy. I also like fruit scents, but they don't last very long on me. I can smell them in the vial, but they die instantly on my skin, except for lemon. Baobahn Sith has grapefruit in it, but I couldn't smell it at all on me. After about two hours, Baobahn Sith disappeared completely from my skin. The oils I have tried & loved - Dragon's Milk, Neo-Tokyo, Old Port-Au-Prince, Kuang Shi, Embalming Fluid, Tamora. I haven't tried that many oils, so I came here for suggestions.

In the vial: Clove. Clove. Look, more clove. Wearing: Again with the clove, I can't smell the other ingredients because the clove is that strong. It smells wonderful though. Drying down, the clove mellows out & I think I can pick out the almond/buttered rum. It's a definite sweet & creamy scent, which I can only smell if I hold my nose to my wrist. It reminds me of Dragon's Milk, but with less cream & more clove. I like it enough to keep it. Yay! Finally one that doesn't make me smell like a garden.

Obeah smells strongly of patchouli out of the bottle. After I put it on, the patchouli was still strong. After a half hour, it mellowed out & I could pick up clove (I think, it smelled smoky on my wrist). I could swear I smelled a sweet floral (either orange or apple blossom, it smelled familiar), but that disappeared quickly. Patchouli is definitely the dominant scent in Obeah. I've been wearing it for two hours now, & I can no longer pick up the clove/peppery smell I noticed earlier, but at least the patchouli thinned out. Another one I'm not sure if I would wear again.

In the bottle: florals with the cedarwood undertone, but sharp to my nose. Wearing it was a different story. For the first half hour, I could smell the flowers with the sharp scent of cedarwood, but after awhile the cedarwood started to slowly die out. After an hour, the cedarwood completely disappeared, & I think it was the black orchid that started coming in strong. Very strong, almost overwhelming to my nose. Two hours later, I noticed the orchid was slowly mellowing out. Definitely has lasting power. I bought a 5 mL of this, it's wonderful, but complex, needs a few tries to get it, works for me, even though I normally despise florals - should give it a try anyway.