cinderfallen

This is interesting in that it fits the concept of "fire" very well--a gentle blaze. However, as a perfume or even as a room scent--nope, no way. Off-putting and bleh-inducing.

I tried Dionysia fresh and it was a lot of fruit, BPAL style. Aged about 6 months now, the frankincense and mahogany have a real presence, acting like a dark and musky cloud that lifts the brighter fruit notes forward. Has the feel of Mme. Moriarty's patchouli/fruit without the creamy vanilla.

I'm not a fan of spicy scents, but this scent is really compelling. It starts off with a blast of cassia like in Enraged Groundhog Musk, very high-pitched. But then suddenly, the low notes appear to bolster and support the high notes of cinammon and clove. It's the suggestion of wood more than the actual scent, but it effectively encases the scent and provides a frame to enjoy the spice in. Of anything, I'd say this blend is a really "stimulating" scent. The scent leaps to my attention and my mind feels revved up with it. It's really interesting to sniff.

This is bright and light, a sweet scent that touches on herbal-floral but not quite, almost like muscadine grape if you pulled the skin off and smell that, but with a luscious, resinous bottom. It doesn't smell like incense at all to me. I really, really like it. I feel like this should be a super popular scent because it smells so. good. A bit green and plant-like at the edges, like a deep and honeyed plant sap oozing woody-green and amber. Pretty. I know what it reminds me of! The original, old-school Herbal Essences shampoo. Uhm. In an awesome way. Storax is another name for benzoin, so I'm pretty sure that and balsalm--as well as the myrrh--is where I'm getting the honey/vanilla notes from, though it's surprising that resins can be so sweet, bright, and uplifting. It never edges into "too sweet" because of that hint of plant sap quality. Totally, totally, TOTALLY bottle-worthy. Come to me, precious! The scent of the bottle is a bit different from the imp, sigh. But I'm hoping aging will take care of it. It's a bit softer, more diffused, with less of the sticky resinous aspect--but it does come out longer into the wear.

Oh, I am SO happy with the new Snake Charmer! This will age exactly into the old bottle I sold/swapped away, I can tell. It's a little bold and sharp but the same reassuring musk and fruit note is there, ready to become slinky-soft-sexy. Not as patchouli and dark/heavy as Mme. Moriarty, which I really appreciate. I think the only Snake Oil resemblence is in the slightly sharp note and the hint of spice/sweetness, but I don't think they're very much alike at all. Fresh, Snake Charmer reminds me a little bit of Hell's Belle.

This turned into generic incense on me. I didn't know what that would smell like until I smelled this. "Oh! Cheap, generic incense! Named something like Blue India!" And a bit of soapiness. ETA 1.23.09: Hey there, split personality skin chemistry! This smells nothing like what it smelled like on me before. (Understatement.) Now that my stress, cortisol levels, etc., are down, and my diet has completely changed.... I think this might have a component that's in Dorian, perhaps a musk? It's that sugar-gritty musk that gives depth to the scent. The scent is interesting--it IS a brooding sort of scent, but not in a true Gothic way, but a romanticized vampire midnight sky kind of way. There is sugar and just the insinuation of flowers which form the light top notes. Sometimes, it interacts with the base musk in a weird way and I smell fresh laundry, hot out of the dryer. But overall, a clinging skin scent, warm and sweet. Wafts sometime make me think of an exotic tea, sugared and creamed with a floral infusion. Looking at reviews, it looks like I might have a decant from a batch made around Aug of '08. The current batch looks more flower-heavy. ETA 9.29.09: Skin chemistry never fails to surprise me. Procured a bottle, which on me smelled very much the imp I had (YES no batch difference!!!!). I tried it on today at the end of my period and I smell a floral-dominated scent, not nearly as musky and rich as it usually is on me. It's usually incense sweet musk, where the flowers are almost an afterthought, but it's completely the opposite this time. I can almost see the delicate petals of the flowers--and they're not a white floral like jasmine, but something that has less oils and more delicate leaves, crushed. Behind that is just a hint of incense, sugar and vanilla, and then the warmth of musk pulling everything together. This is quite a pretty scent! I wish my body liked to do pretty rather than resin/dark/musky all the time like this!

It's weird because I don't think Snow White smells like almond, or coconut, or white florals at all. At ALL. This really is just really well blended, and it smells like Snow-Flakes with a creaminess that doesn't overwhelm the slightly wet quality of the scent.

I think Red Lantern might work: Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. It's an LE but it's pretty likely it will show up around January for Valentine's Day. There are also imps floating around the forum. The Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil, a Salon, is: Bourbon vanilla, benzoin, caramel, Mysore sandalwood, aged black patchouli, carnation, and iris florentina. From the GCs, I'd recommend you try Velvet, which is described as "gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh." Reviews here. Dorian may work. It's a dark, rich vanilla tea with a good dose of musk. It's not too sweet, in my opinion, and has a powdery gourmand quality. Boomslang is a mix of spicy/vanilla sweet Snake Oil with cocoa absolute. Dark and rich, but sweet.

What kind of scent is it? Fruity? Sweet? More creamy? Just giving out notes doesn't help much if you want scent recs unless you find a person who already knows that scent. There's a search engine on the BPAL site: use it. Learn it. Love it. Otherwise, there a million different ways the notes could be blended at different strengths and concentrations. Even vague description of what it smells like to you will help a lot. I'd say try Queen Mab, which looks similar. It's a sweet floral, with a nice light musk, a little candy but not over the top.

I loved wearing Khajuraho for just that reason! 'kaj ur a ho!

Starts out sparkling citrus and the white tea note, very fruity. It settles down more creamy and musky with the same almost-fruity red musk from Mme. Moriarty. Oh, I figured out this smells very much like if you had to blend Embalming Fluid and Mme. Moriarty together! Mind-blowing, huh? ETA: Had to add that this is one of the few blends with rose in it that works for me without going sharp and sour.

This smells like LUSH's American Cream, light on the vanilla and heavier on the herbal/woody notes.

I can't get past the buttery vanilla at first. It has the same intense foodiness as Eat Me, with the robust earthiness of vegetation and what smells like patchouli (not the hippy kind, but that distinct note that gives perfume that earthy body). It's smoothed out by the lily as a sweet after-scent. It's initially a very earthy-gourmand, which is a bit odd, the grittiness I'm going to attribute to the ambergris and sea moss, though I'm not sure what it is. As the scent wears on, the butteriness death dies down enough for more of the lily to take over, and it's a much smoother, sweeter scent overall, grounded in a light resins. There's a nice uplifting note in this that refreshes the scent, a little green. In the middle phase, it turns creamy, sweet earthy scent, with notes of vanilla, patchouli, and lily. Reminds me a bit of Mara Fox's Love Potion Black. On complete drydown, the scent blossoms up on the higher registers to something brighter, more floral and sweet. Subtle resins dirties up the lower registers, but it's not nearly as earthy or intense as it once was. It actually turns very pretty and wearable. It's no longer a novelty scent but a perfume. It goes through a huge change from in the imp to on my skin. If I do try this again, I'll need to remember to not directly sniff for a couple minutes. Buttery foody death. Gag.

Life's too short to be fussy. From the cap, imp wand, imp itself, wand cap, upending bottle, in any and whatever fashion... Apply neat!

Can you not smell anything directly from the imp or on your skin? If it's the former, ask someone else to try and smell them--it may be just your nose. If it's the latter, it may be just your skin chemistry eating up the scent. If it's neither of those things, I'd email the lab and tell them what's up.

Have you tried the swap/sale portion of the forum? Forumites are quite kind to newbies and you can try out a lot of different samples rather than potentially wasting time and money on full bottles.

Hm. Heavy rose with vanilla and amber tones. Perhaps... Grindhouse - Florentine iris, red musk, mimosa, magnolia, Damascus rose, clove, and vanilla bean. Spellbound - three roses, radiant amber, and sensual red musk. I'm thinking try Spellbound, and of course, try layering with other scents.

I get that wintergreen chalky note on first whiff, but it dries down to--"Do YOU want to smell like a boozy vanilla cupcake today?" Yeah. If you do, then you want Love's Philosophy. That is all.

I got a sniffy of this, and I can tell this is what Lady Una will eventually age into. It's a thick scent. It's pretty heavy on the spices--smells kind of like honeyed molasses, a bit like snickerdoodle cookies, with the brighter note of tea lifting it up. Not my thing, but it's making me curious about a fresh sample. I definitely want to try that.

Bengal is very spicy, but doesn't have any cream or floral notes. It's very much a spice blend, hot and clean with a bit of musk if I recall. You might try Silk Road, which was creamier. I also immediately thought of Alice, which has always reminded me of a light milky chai, and which also contains rose and carnation (which contributes to the lightly spiced warmth).

No one will know if you wear it as casual perfume. It is your oil, after all.

Oh man, this thread brings back memories. *g* But I've found that Coyote was a great skin scent for me.

I'm stuffed up, so I'll probably edit to give clearer impressions, but Lunar Eclipse goes on as a really manly cologne. It settles down and it's not nearly as claustrophobically musky and muddled with spices. I definitely get the blackcurrant, which lends it the same sneakingly sweet and fruity note as Mme. Moriarty, as well as the more subdued smoothness of violet leaf. The tea and tobacco give the scent a textured feel, and there is an almost minty/citrus-y topnote which I'm almost certain is acacia--the blackened fruit gum. I wish I could smell it better so I could decide whether I like it or not.

Elegba smells *exactly* like a cross between Red Lantern and Creepy. At first, it's a blast of almost caramel sweetness of rum, which settles down into a really sexy undercurrent of dry coconut, smooth and subtle coconut water, and rum so sugared you can feel the grittiness of the condensed crystals. It's not a tropical scent to me, though--the tobacco isn't really apparent, but it reins back the scent into Red Lantern territory, a little darker and smokier than you'd expect.

I found tweedledum to be very clean, actually. The patchouli is only slightly woody.