cinderfallen

It's a quite juicy grapefruit-kumquat scent, ripe like Hungry Ghost Moon without the soothing aloe-ish undertone. It's tart, but not crisp--more like a refreshing pool of water you can dunk into rather than a thin, citrus-sour scent. Slight hint of flowers help bring that aspect out. Big recommend for citrus-lovers. I think it'd make a great room scent.

Three words: cinnamon rice pudding. Reminds me a bit of Bengal, but with a basmati rice grain note and cream.

I get mostly the orange floral, but it gets strangely powdery.... Not super compatible with my chemistry.

When I first got the bottle, the fruit was brash and overpowering; I felt stifled by an almost air-freshener flat sweetness. (From a swap--year old bottle.) I let Mme. Moriarty take a rest, and after a few days, the scent was pretty amazing. Still very fruity, but with an undercurrent of the patchouli leaf, almost tea-like. Very much reminds me of berry fruit tea in its wet stage, in fact. Dry, the vanilla comes to the forefront, and turns the scent from bright and wet to a cream--this is when the red musk peeks out. No incense associations at all. The imp I have is a little darker--the patchouli leaf and red musk is more prominent, and it's a sexier blend. Who knows, maybe my bottle will get there. This is the first time that I am seriously planning to get a second bottle in my 2.5 years of BPAL history. It's great that my skin chemistry changed (and stays changed--PLEASE), because when I first got Mme. Moriarty as an imp, I amped the patchouli leaf like whoa. Dry, dry, dry; only the slightest hint of sweetness, no fruit, no musk. Now I see what the hype is about. ETA: as I found out, the throw is insane. ETA2: So my first bottle of Mme. Moriarty seems to have been a sport. I think people at the Lab forgot to put in red musk? The two bottles smell completely different; the first is very fruity and tea-like and the second is heavy with a redolent musk. Since I think the first was a mistake, I think I'll be using that sparingly. I do love both.

Seems like Candy Butcher should be at the top of your list, if it isn't already. It seems like it ranges all the way from solid fudge chocolate to cotton candy, with or without a hint of sugared flowers. Personally, it smells like hot chocolate with cream or cotton candy ice cream, depending on the day; one might think the topnote is a bit flowery if your perceptions run that way, but I really think it's all about the perception of the different notes blending together.

Selkie looks like a romance novel cover. =)

I don't smell chocolate at all! If you've ever had cotton candy ice cream with the pink and blue swirls? This is exactly like that--creamy, sweet, and sugary with almost a floral overtone.

In sum: Champaca like whoa. This is a very pink scent, albeit with a sandalwood-incense tinge. Overall, I get a creamy, almost fruity, candy-sweet scent from the champaca; it's softened by the vanilla, and lightly balanced by what seems like the vestiges of smoldering incense. Flirty, pink, a little heady but grounded, too. It smells like LUSH's sweeter scents, actually, and brings to mind Dragon's Milk. The throw is outrageous. Sometimes, it's way too sweet. On my friend, who amps florals, this is shockingly green rose, almost sharp. ETA: I layered this with some Scherezade, and it really helped to tone down the sweetness and add more depth. Also works fantastically with Smut for a rounded, infinitely sniffable scent.

I was afraid that this would be pure Smarties candy on my skin--that sweet, shallow smell of red sweets, and it does smell like that on the first few seconds of application. However, it almost immediately softens into a "pink" candy musk; the sweet pea and honeycomb does a good job of pulling the candy aspects of the scent into something wearable as a perfume, and the result is something snuggly and sweetly enveloping. A good day to wear for those limitlessly blue sky spring days.

I remember reading about this in my psych class, actually. I think it was that your body is "disconnected" from your mind when you're sleeping (so that your body ISN'T actually punching/rolling/etc in life that you're doing in a dream). Sometimes, it takes a little longer for it get it together, so to speak. There are ghost stories/boogeyman elements to this phenomenon: it's not uncommon for the person to feel a pressure on her chest, unable to move, with the feeling that something is watching them. (In Korea, this is called "scissors.")

Oh, disappointment. I was so excited by the citrus and lychee, but got foiled by the flowers. It's very fruity and tart at first, but dries down to a very characteristic Bath and Bodyworks smell.... ADDED 3/5/09: I'm finally getting to review this after losing the first bottle somewhere in transit. Well, it's a burst of citrus and becomes a pleasant fruit-floral, soft, with the citrus bite, but due to all these qualities, it reminds me more of Bath and Body Works than a unique perfume, especially for BPAL. It smells exactly as if I'd tried on one of their body splashes.

I thought it was a very humdrum rose, like a lotion my grandmother uses that smells like rose. Maybe as a layering note?

This vanilla in Morocco is very similar to Antique Lace--AL with a little sandalwood and gentle spices to make an equally comforting and warm scent. Smells exactly like Burberry perfume. Exactly.

VERY faint on me; reminded me of LUSH's Demon in the dark soap: faint apple and mint.

First on, it's a strong aquatic floral that reminded me of Fragile. STRONG throw--I dabbed only a bit on one wrist and I could smell the waft when I was walking. Then dries down to generic floral perfume. Sadness.

This was pretty terrible on me, to get that out of the way. Very sharp citrus, cleaning liquid citrus, with a sticky-sour underbite--must be the amber. It dried down 5 hours later, forgotten on my wrist, to what a friend described as "expensive perfume!" Nuh-uh, no thank you. Faint citrus, but enough to remind me of the horrors of Haunted wet on me.

This scent is very similar to CB I Hate Perfume's Black Tea accord: sweet, aromatic black tea scent, very delicate, that turns into carnation on drydown.

Dishwashing soap. Alas.

I think you should try emailing customer support, since people have been getting their New Year packages.

At first, Ladon is pure apple, but I don't think I like the Lab's apple very much. It's the type of apple used in cider, and not the tart, super-sweet ones that I love. On drydown, there's a tiniest hint of dragon's blood that is more implicit than anything, and what must be the apple blossom and hyacinth toning down the scent to a fruity floral rather than sheer fruit. It's a mellow sweetness that strikes me as a little flat.

Fresh on, Melisande reminds me of jasmine tea; as it dries down, the vanilla bean and musk lend a creamy, solid note--no fragile flower wisps here. The violet and jasmine meld into each other, and I think the violet is actually gaining precedence over the jasmine. The jasmine and vanilla bean lend smoothness, and the violet has a "coarser" sugary feel on top. It's quite interesting.

Oh, no. Nope. Honey and ylang ylang seem to be pretty bad in combination; Eve went the same way: sharp, with the slightest edge of rotting flowers. With a bit of grape fizz.

I'd second Red Lantern, and add Black Opal. I immediately thought of glamorous black-and-white film stars in slinky dresses when first trying it on. It's a really sophisticated vanilla scent; not as fun or flirty as others, but definitely has that vintage feel.

Fresh on, it's a blend of leather, coconut, and something sweeter, almost foody: must be the tonka. The leather dries down, moves into the background more, but it's still a very blended scent that goes a bit sweet, but dry. I'm sure someone else will love it, but it smelled too "mature" for me, darker than my tastes run. ADDED 7/14/08: Whoa. Talk about the importance of skin chemistry! I tried this out on a whim while going through my swap box and the change is startling! I got the imp about two years ago and have tried it periodically and I never got any of the lighter notes. It was a very dense, coconut/leather-heavy blend that smelled about 20 years older than I was because it was not very sweet. The texture was like dense velvet that clung with definite presence a few inches away from my skin, but it smelled strong, unpleasing, and off-balance to my nose. NOW, wow. I can smell the crisp, lighter notes--like champagne bubbles over a creamy, vanilla-like tonka, wrapped in a sexy suggestion of leather and smoke. It's super vanilla-sweet which I would never have suspected a year ago! Actually, I think the vanilla note I love so much in Snake Oil is contributed greatly by the tonka in Perversion. I would love to have a full bottle, but I know it won't smell like this. Batch variation is truly a sad thing.

At first, it's pure Tulszcha (sp?!): mint and cool cucumber, and then it dries down to something like creamy coconut, no hint of mint or cucumber anywhere. Buh? I think I'll stick with my Tulszcha.