nekogrrl

In imp: Sweet, rotting fruit and blood.

 

On skin: blood Blood BLOOD. Ugh.

I get the silver, but not particularly the stone. Kinda meh.

The pepper in this doesn't come out nearly enough to stop it from smelling like last year's White Chocolate Strawberry.

Who the heck bottled their BO and slipped it into my perfume? Didn't even skin test, couldn't take the smell.

In imp: LEATHER.

 

On skin: Straight up leather. Don't get me wrong, I /really/ enjoy the smell of leather, but this just isn't doing it for me.

I got this in imp form because while rose is generally a death note for me, I wanted to see if the other notes would keep it in check.

 

Let us say.. no.

 

In the imp, all I smell is rose. Wet on skin, I get a tantalizing glimpse of what I had hoped this perfume to be: slightly rosy with patchouli and sandalwood dirtying it up and keeping it from taking over.

 

Then the rose whips out a pair of pistols and shoots the patchouli and sandalwood dead. Frankincense tries to be a hero, but gets cut down for its efforts. The neroli and orris root cower in a corner, and as frankincense is getting shot, make a run for it. Rose doesn't give them a chance.

 

Victorious, rose then proceeds to turn powdery and AMP. Wait, is there a cat? And did it just pee on my wrists?

 

This is an amazing perfume.

 

Wet I very much get the sense of a smith standing at his forge quenching an iron sword in water. I can literally almost taste the metallic bite. (No, I'm not licking the perfume. I lick toads instead.)

 

As it dries, it never really loses that metallic edge. The blood fades a little bit, but in general this doesn't morph very much. This is very masculine, and I'd love to test it out on my husband.

This scent (so far) has disappointed me more than worked.

 

I was really hoping for something.. more ambery/peppery. Which still could happen, as I don't think this has finished completely morphing. Right now, the rose and honey are prominent, and it's slightly gag-making. The amber is there, which is preventing me from completely washing this off and.. *sniffs* ... *sniffs again* Oh hai thar pepper!

 

Okay, now this blend is into spicy floral, and it's /much/ better than the initial wet to drydown phase. This will be a keeper after all. Hopefully as it ages the spice will be more prominent.

Mmmm, another definite like for me.

 

I was a little leery of this one because 'white' florals usually amp like crazy on me. These florals were kept in check by the juniper and pear. I definitely get the 'silver' idea, and love this perfume more than I thought.

I was hesitant about trying this one because so far out of the 'sunlight' blends I've tried (Sol Invictus, Sportive Sun come to mind specifically) or blends which have some of those notes in them (Velvet Tiger) they haven't worked. At all.

 

So I was really surprised when it did.

 

Wet, there was a definite ORANGE smell which I suspect was the frangipani as it really reminded me of Velvet Tiger. It was luckily not the 'getitoffgetitoff' type though, which I suspect was due to the ambers. On drydown it became a touch metallic, but still was a very 'warm' kind of scent, which stuck fairly close to the skin. (Which, if I like it, it usually does. If I exude scent, I'm usually gagging.)

 

Definite bottle.

In decant - O HAI CARAMEL. When it hits my skin it instantly morphs into.. sex. The musk is most prominent on me, and is sweetened by the honey and vanilla. Caramel is nowhere to be sniffed. There's also a hint of herbal.. something. It tempers the sweetness and makes it.. better than bearable, it enhances and turns it into something quite lovely.

 

On repeated huffing, the patchouli and ylang ylang show up, which warms up the musk. The caramel kind of wafts in and out, but doesn't go dominant.

 

Definitely bottle-worthy.

This is the strongest Yule scent I've tried so far.

 

Initial reaction wet is boozy and sweet. While it's drying, a cozy warmth starts coming out.

 

Oh, I finally figured out what this is reminding me of - pink grapefruit. I will have to say this is the strangest scent between notes listed and what I'm sniffing, which is fizzy sugared pink grapefruit booze.

 

I like it, but it's only decant-worthy.

Initial wet impression comes across as very fresh and cold. Almost herbal.

 

Drydown: This scent is disappearing quickly, which is sad. I was hoping for some appearance from the ambers and woods.

 

I'm going to try this scent again, as I think I had the highest hopes for this out of the Yules I wanted to try.

Sniffing the decant, the first thing I think is 'orange Sweetart'. When it first goes on, yes, very much orange Sweetart, but that almost immediately changes to a dark, sweet scent.

 

And then it disappears. Wait, there it is, a dark piney scent I can only smell if I shove my arm into my nose.

 

This disappears way too quickly to warrant spending money on.

This was one of the ones I was really hoping would be awesome on me.

 

Sadly, I get a very cologne-y scent from wet through to drydown. I have no idea why exactly it does this to me, as musks are usually my friends. Might be the leaves and/or camellia.

 

After drydown (about 30+ minutes in) I start picking up on the musks, but nothing else. The camellia may be sweetening the musks, but it's nothing obvious to my nose.

 

This goes off to swaps.

Tried this today - I think I like it.

 

The first thing to come out was the lemon verbena - it smelled very much like lemon Pledge. That phase lasted.. mm.. 15-30 minutes, and then morphed into a softly spicy resiny scent. Must be the frankincense and myrrh mixing with the patchouli. I don't really get any of the florals, at least not to where I can specifically pick them out.

 

I did get a mental picture of a lit menorah once it went into the spicy resin phase. Very warm and comforting.

Okay, usually perfumes with sweet, cloying florals I skip cause.. I hate sweet, cloying florals. I got an imp of this to try hoping the musk and amber (which usually smell awesome on me) would keep the jasmine in check.

Sigh. I was wrong. Oh, how wrong I was.

This turned out to be a gaggingly sweet musk/jasmine combo, with a bit of amber warming it up. IIRC, there also was a hint of vanilla to this, which added to the sweetness. The scent was strong (of course, since I didn't like it) and lasted well throughout the day.

On the bright side, I don't think I'll have too much trouble unloading this.

First sniff: gaggingly sweet. This does not particularly bode well.

 

Wet: The honey is /so/ cloying. Not what I was hoping for.

 

Dry: On me, the honey took over the blend completely. I don't get any herbs out of this mostly; they're waaaaaay in the background.

 

Verdict: off to swaps.

First sniff: Oooh, this is interesting - sharp and green. This could be spiffy!

 

Wet on skin: AAAAAAAAAAUGH floral. So gaggingly FLORAL.

 

Dry on skin: The nasty floral has toned down, but it's still a heavy overtone, making this smell like rotting greenery.

 

This is not for me. Off to swap pile!

In imp: warm floral incense.

 

Wet on skin: Orangey floral.

 

Drydown: The incense note I picked up on on initial sniff is coming out in full force, and it's not mixing well with the floral. It's becoming powdery, probably from the amber.

 

Dry: Aroo? Uhm, that disappeared fast. I get very minor lingering florals, and a bit of the powdery amber, but I have to sniff hard to get it.

 

Verdict: Meh. I like Sportive Sun better. Glad i got a chance to try it, though.

Got this in a swap, decant-style.

 

In imp: rich chocolate caramel.

 

Wet on skin: rich chocolate caramel, which almost immediately morphs into a heavy smoke scent. I can almost /taste/ the smoke. It has a sweet edge to it which I attribute to the caramel. There is no chocolate here. Sad. The smoke seems to be the predominant scent, and I was hoping for more of an even blend.

 

Verdict: For the first.. 2 minutes on skin, I was gearing up to hunt down a bottle. But then the Smoke Monster reared its head, and like Mr. Eko, I'm going down.

CCCXXXI - decant

 

First Sniff: Floral?

 

Skin Test: Oh. My. Sweet sugared tea. This is lovely. Not a lot of throw, though. Still a keeper.

CCLVII - decant

 

First Sniffage: Honey/amber

 

Aha! After much huffing of the arm, I have at least figured out what else I'm smelling - some type of white floral. It blends with the honey/amber quite nicely. However, it's not my type of scent, so off to swaps it goes.

CXLVIII - decant

 

Initial whiff: metallic incense

 

On the skin it smells more.. cologney. Can still smell a metallic edge to it. I'd love to try this on the husband, as he does better with 'bright' scents than I do. Doesn't morph as it dries.

 

Meh. This is going on the swap pile, as it's not OMGMUSTHAVE.

 

Previously reviewed by naeelah.

DCIX - straight from the lab

 

Initial whiff: cinnamon!

 

Skin test: cinnamon, with something that almost smells like ass. I'm not exactly sure what to make of this. Snake Oil usually works quite well on me, so this.. somewhat off scent is strange. I've never smelled anything like this in BPAL, so I don't know exactly what to compare it to. This scent stays pretty much the same throughout the day, doesn't morph at all.

 

I think I'll keep this around for a while, see if the scent matures. Overall, except for that not-quite-Snake-Oil smell, it's a pretty nice blend.