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I was in Italy and mistakenly ordered steamed milk instead of hot chocolate with steamed milk. The drink I got was warm, frothy, and very slightly vanilla-flavored. Mitzvah smells exactly like this drink tasted. It's a very subtle, sweet scent - very warm and "frothy" in a way that's very hard to explain. It's really soothing, and it makes me want to curl up and take a nap. I wish I had GALLONS of this, because I can see myself using this up very quickly!

While this scent is very pretty, it's also very not "me". I prefer warm, spicy foody scents, blends with vanilla, and I adore blends with any type of sugary note. However, the lemon, peach, and floral teas turn to soap on my skin! This goes the way of Alice, White Rabbit, and Dorian on me... pleasant in the bottle, and increasingly soapy (with a hint of lemon pledge) as it dries. While I smell like I've recetly taken a shower with some very nice soap, I prefer to smell like I've just finished baking. Sadly, this goes to the swap pile. Someone with different skin chemistry will love this, I'm sure!

I'm not a fan of florals, so I immediately re-sold my bottle of the '04 Dia. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love this version! It's very floral, and almost has a jasmine-y top note like Follow Me Boy. It's slightly more sugary, though, with the barest hint of something woodsy (the dried leaves?). If Follow Me Boy is a light, spring/summer scent, then this is its darker, fall/winter sister. I prefer to wear foody scents, but every now and then I like something different. This will be perfect for the days when I don't feel like smelling like a bakery. I can't pin down what's doing this, but I smell like I've been living in a Lush store for a few years. I have that light, sweet scent that's a combination of all the bath bombs and the soaps and the face masks. My favorite part of going into the Lush store is the smell that hits me when I first open the door. Now I can get hints of this huge collection of scents whenever I want.

I'm hooked on the '04 version. It's like crack. I have three bottles and I love them like my children. I was thrilled that it came out again, and very curious about any differences - I figured I had enough of the original to not be too terrified of change. On my skin, it's definitely very different! It smells much like I expected Trick or Treat to smell... warm caramel and slightly burnt sugar. This smells almost like a marshmallow that caught on fire while warming it to make smores on a campfire... and to me, that's BLISS. I'm a huge "burnt marshmallow" fan, and this makes my mouth water. There's juuuust enough similarity to the original Sugar Skull to keep me happy, and just enough difference to make me reach for it rather than add it to the hoard. I love it. SO glad I got two bottles!

In the bottle: very buttery fall baking in a warm kitchen. On my skin: As it dries, I get a very strange piney note that fades after about 20 mins. It smells nothing like the bottle, but it still smells very foody and very fall-like. My skin brings out the cider, and the mulling spices give it a bit of a "dried flowers and spices" kick. Oddly, this smells exactly like Harvest Moon 2005 minus the florals. Very tangy. I like it.

I'm such a foody that I instantly opted to ignore this blend. I associate "clear, crystal glass notes" with "soap, soapy, soapiness" on my skin and instead ordered three bottles of Midway. However, after reading the reviews of this I HAD to get a 5ml in a swap. I mean, come on... Snake Oil's more ambery sister????!? It is indeed very much like Snake Oil, and I adore it. If Snake Oil is a spiced vanilla, this is a spiced amber with a touch of some kind of resin that I know I have in some other scents... but can't for the life of me name. It's deliciously sweet and incensy... the perfect combo of my two favorite scent categories. I'll wear this when I'm sick of wearing Snake Oil every day, but deep-down want that sweet/spicy goodness. This is probably Snake Charmer, but I don't know for sure so I'm leaving it here. --Shollin

I got an imp in a swap just the other day and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. The clove is the only note I can pick out, and that's probably the most appealing part. It smells slightly boozy, slightly incense-like, and slightly something else that I can't place. I'm really enjoying the sweetness of f54, and it's cut nicely by the musk. Plus, my fiancé's response to my shoving my hand under his nose was "oh my god, that smells great!" However, f54 is just a bit "perfum-y" for me in a way that's hard to pinpoint. I really like foody and/or incensy scents, and this has something in it that doesn't appeal to me. I'll definitely try the imp again to see how I feel later.

My first thoughts on Midway can be summed up into two words: Kick Ass. Oddly, the imp started out as a very sweet apricot. I was very nervous about this because I had very, very, very high hopes for this blend. I'm a total foody-geek when it comes to scents, but I tend to go for the "baked goods" variety over the berries/fruits. Thankfully the apricot turned to apple on my skin, and the cotton candy, funnel cake, and other goodness came out as it dried. I expected a more sugary-sweet scent to Midway, but it's more complex than that. To me, it's a very cotton-candy-ish scent that has a touch more than simply spun sugar. It's very slightly boozy because of the apple, and a teeny bit buttery/salty. It really does smell like the air near the food stalls at a carnival. I'm very, very glad I ordered three bottles of this. It isn't a strong scent, so I'll be slathering like a fiend.

Another morphing blend on me. In the bottle and until it dries a bit, it's all chocolate. Very bliss-like, but not quite as dark... more of a hot cocoa scent than a fresh chocolate cake scent. As it dries, it develops a touch of citrus and a floral that I can't quite place, and eventually it all blends together to form a delicious foody/floral/fruity scent that I can't believe I like. The only down-side is the way my skin eats this scent. After an hour it's almost gone! I'll be using up this bottle in a hurry, because it's too good not to keep slathering every hour on the hour.

This moon is wonderfully strange. Every time I sniff I get a totally different scent! My first sniff is all ginger, then the next is a near match for my bottle of SN honey, then the next goes all gardenia, then jasmine, then back to honey..... lather, rinse, repeat. I've never run into a scent that rotates like this, but I really like it! I really, really, really wish I'd bought more than one bottle.

Mmmmmmmmm I love this. Wet, it smells like freshly baked chocolate cake before it's cool enough to put on the frosting. As it dries it loses that "moist chocolate cake" quality and smells a bit more like brownies. At first I wasn't too enthusiastic, but ever since I first tried it I've been getting an occasional craving for it.... much like actual chocolate. I now have a 5ml on order. Oh yeah.

YES. I'm a total computer nerd, but my mad phat skillz are all in Photoshop and the like. Excel frightens me.

Damn damn damn. I ordered three bottles and each of the three has some note than turns to poo on my skin! XVIII DAMN YOU VETIVER!!!! I'd like to try to pick out the other notes, but I have a bit of a thing with vetiver. It's like a screaming 3 year old at a midnight R rated movie - I'd love to watch the show, but those asshole parents took their poor kid to an inappropriate movie way past his bedtime! If there is a note in this one that I might like, it's drowned out by the screaming, writhing, PAY ATTENTION TO ME vetiver. Someone who likes woody notes take it from me, please. CLVII DAMN YOU SOAPY STUFF!!! Again, I have no clue what's in this, because something in it turns instantly to Dishwasher soap on me. I originally thought that the soap came from something floral, but further tries have let me know that this one is all pine and rum. All in all, not bad, except for the soap smell that overpowers the other stuff. I'm sure that on someone who ISN'T a soap-mutant, this would smell heavenly. Someone who likes dry woods and faint resins, take it away! CCLVII Florals. Assorted florals. I do not like florals. Damn. ETA: After a while some kind of fruity smell bubbles up and improves this a bit. I'm not sure what fruit exactly... maybe pomegranite? There could be some currant in this also. I'll still swap it because of the florals, however. I have another bottle on the way with my 13 order (because I just had to try one more) and I'm hoping for some kind of foody (PLEASE!) or incensy scent. I'm just so sad that my 3 main scent-problems are each personified in my three 5mls!

I thought I would love this when I sniffed the bottle. I hated it on my skin for the first fifteen minutes. I now like it after waiting around to see if it would change at all as it dried. In the bottle, it smells like baked goods - fresh cream, sugar, and a little bit of mint. Freshly applied, it smells like burned plastic covered in day-old, plain yogurt. This lasts about fifteen minutes or so before changing into.... 20 mins - several hours later, it sweetens as it dries and loses the sour-yogurt smell. After a while it smells like angel food cake, only not quite as sugary sweet. It's nicely foody without making me smell like I'm knee-deep in baked goods on a hot summer afternoon... it smells more like I recently baked a cake that's just now cooling on a rack by the stove.

I got this in a livejournal sale and... spent a fair bit of money on it. However, it was a perfectly fair price considering how hard it is to find, and the seller was kind enough to package it beautifully and throw in some very generous freebies! After wearing it almost constantly for a week, I can safely say it was well worth the price. I love it and will cry when it's all gone. It's very sweet, but not in a sugary or foody way. Honey smells like the real stuff, but in a softer, gentler way that doesn't leave me feeling gooey and sticky. I'm really enjoying wearing this in summer weather because it's so light and calming, and it has excellent staying-power no matter how sweaty I get. It lasts all day, so I can put it on in the morning and then enjoy it's perfect throw well into the evening. All in all, while I spent more than I have for any other BPAL, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Hell, I WILL if I ever see it available again!

This one wins the award for "biggest transformation ever". I got it as a freebie in my most recent order from the lab. I'd wanted to try it for a while, but never ordered because of the reports of almond in the blend. I absolutely HATE the way almond oil smells on my skin, so I assumed that Black Phoenix would smell like complete ass with my body chemistry. At first, I was 100% right. I put it on and gagged. Almond makes me smell like I recently fell into a compost heap and am now using a mixture of lye and my own urine to clean it off. Yes, it smells THAT bad on me. That "bog of eternal stench" reek lasted all of 5 minutes on me. I hovered over the sink with soap at the ready when *BAM* the entire room suddenlt smelled of rose. That lasted for another five minutes when some kind of magnificently dry, cinnamon-y scent bubbled up from under the rose and made my skin smell so good that I had to sit down on the edge of the tub. I spent 10 minutes sitting and sniffing before my fiancé came in and asked if I was ok. I had to run back into the living room to put on nearly half of the imp on every piece of exposed skin. I think that this blend is making me slightly crazy! I want to rub up against the parts of my body that smell like Black Phoenix. I want to do what my cat does when I come home from work, and just roll around on the floor smooshing my face up against my wrists. I may not be able to leave the house today.

Blackberries! I put this on the back of my hand, and now this wonderfully sharp blackberry note wafts over me every time I move my hair out of my eyes. The berries are so fierce that it's hard for any other notes to compete - I smell the heather only slightly, but it softens the blackberries just enough to keep me from licking my hand. This scent is nicely simple compared to the other scents I wear all the time. I'll grab a bottle for sure!

This scent totally disappears on me! I can smell something sweet in the bottle, but it goes on my skin and vanishes. I smell amber and cream veeeery faintly if I put my nose directly against my skin. Otherwise I can' smell it at all. It's too bad really... I love amber scents!

I could have sworn I'd reviewed this a while back, but after a fruitless search, I realized I was wrong. Samhain did the strangest thing today.... I bought it from a forumite about two months ago, and I was massively disappointed. The first four times I tried it (over a period of a few weeks) it smelled like apple-scented baby powder, and I flat-out hated it. I had been so excited to try it because I ADORE fall scents, and every note sounded unbelieveably wonderful. I was very upset with my skin chemistry, and opted to put it in the swap pile in case someone had something I couldn't otherwise get. However, that all changed last night when I tried it again. I recently got my bottle of Hexennacht, and I immediately noticed its similarity to Samhain. I loved the fir needle and woodsmoke notes, and I was so sad to have gotten only one bottle. Hexennacht worked so well on my skin that after a few days of wearing it, I thought I'd give Samhain another go. I'm SO glad I did, because it smells fantastic now. I have no idea what changed, but it no longer smells like baby powder. My fiancé keeps telling me that I smell like apples, butter, and pumpkin pie! It's a nice link between Hexennacht and Jack, and I'm glad to have something that's both foody and woodsy without being overwhelmingly one or the other. I can't stop sniffing my wrists, and I'm beyond thrilled that I have a more woodsy compliment to Jack (which I wear damned near constantly) to wear when I'm not feeling quite so foody.

As odd as this sounds, this is exactly what I expected the interior of a brain canister to smell like. Wet, it smells very sweet and fruity, with a lot of similarities to Pink Moon. As it dries, the pepper and ginger are more noticeable, making the brains nicely spicy. It's very fruity, with a touch of light spice that gives it a nice kick. Definitely great for summery weather! I'm not normally into fruity scents because they smell too much like Herbal Essences bath products to me. However, Mi-Go Brain Canister is a keeper. It's juuuuust sweet enough to keep me from feeling like I'm just hopping out of the shower, but juuuust spicy enough to avoid smelling like I just spilled fruit punch down my shirt. Hell, I'd keep it just for the brain diagram on the label! ETA: the strangest thing..... every time I try to type.... s p i c y .... b r a i n s ....(imagine it without the spaces) it changes to "mi-go brains"

I adore this scent. It's very earthy, but more in a glittering way than in a "big pile of mud" way. I wear this on the days that Zombi and Graveyard Dirt don't fit the bill. In the bottle I smewll patchoili, patchouli, and more patchouli. Freshly applied it smells less like a head shop and more like the glittering earth that everyone mentions. Phew. After a few hours I am in love with this! The oakmoss and heliotrope soften the patchoili so I don't smell like I've been buried in incense. Instead, I get a "digging through the earth until I find buried treasure, gems, or gold" feeling. I will definitely order a bottle of this.

I tend to shy away from anything with strong floral notes because my skin magnifies them like crazy. I'm glad I got a bottle of Pink moon, however, because the berries and sugar survive through all stages. In the bottle I smell a general sweetness that is very hard to describe. It doesn't smell edible, but it doesn't smell floral either......very strange. Freshly applied The berries and sugar come out right away. I love this stage! It's very sweet and candy-like and smells the way a strawberry dipped in sugar tastes. After a few hours the lunar oils (I'm assuming) come out and it starts to smell similar to the other lunacy blends I've tried. The sweetness is strong enough to seperate it from the rest, but the similarity is definitely obvious. I wish the candy-like stage lasted longer, but I love the other stages enough that it's totally worth keeping and wearing on a regular basis. It's definitely a nice scent for Spring.

Ok, I have to start with this: Why on EARTH didn't I order about fifteen bottles of this stuff??? I've liked some oils enough to shout expletives aloud (in a happy way) while alone in my house. Urd did that to me, and so did Sugar Skull, but I've never had a reaction to a blend like I did with Hexennacht. I sniffed the bottle, quietly said "ooh!" and applied a dab to my left forearm. I waited about two seconds, and then my entire body shivered, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I got covered head to toe in goosebumps..... and other things happened that require no detail, save to say that I was ready to go off and cavort naked in the woods. It's a spectacular pine scent, with a touch of woodsmoke, florals, and that lovely "warm skin" scent that I completely do not understand but love to death. It's just woodsy enough to make me want to go for a long walk in a forest, but incensy enough to make me want to stay at home and read a book, and floral enough to make me want to open windows, and "warm skin"-y enough to make me want to toss the book aside, close the windows, and go running off into said woods with no pants on. I don't understand why on earth this smell makes me react the way I do, but I don't want it to end. It has a nice throw without being overpowering, and is complex enough that I want to smell my arm again and again just to try to pick out the notes.

ZING! Holy citrus, Batman! I opened my ginormous (read: huge) box o' BPAL today and smelled Moxie immediately. I tried it before any of the LE bottles because it was just screaming for attention, and I'm glad I did. It's spectacular! I normally don't do citrus scents because I feel like I'm wearing a room spray, but this is beating me into submission. I have to put it that way because this scent is really that aggressive! My arm is screaming "PAY ATTENTION TO ME! I COMMAND IT! DON'T MAKE ME KILL THIS PUPPY!!!" The orange is definitely the most noticeable on my skin, and I'm having a hard time figuring out the rest. Andrabell mentioned ginger, and I can see where she gets that. The rest is a mystery to me, but I'm fine not knowing what causes Moxie to be such a powerful, loud, and ballsy scent. It's got a tremendous throw, and I'll have to be careful not to apply too much for fear of blasting people off the bus when I get on in the morning. I know that I will definitely wear the entire 10ml (hooray for Beth's "just 'cause" upgrade!) because I think that Moxie will make me wear it all.

I bought a bottle unsniffed, and when I opened it I thought I might die. Wet, it smelled like an incredible mix of incense and spices. As it dried on my skin, my reaction could best be summed up with the following paragraph of freaking out: ACTHFPB! SO GOOD! DEFIES WORDS! GOOD GOOD GOOD!!!!! Morocco is fabulous, excellent, fantasiic.... let's just call it excefantastifabulous. On me, it smells like the most perfect, magnificent, flawless sandalwood with very light, dry spices waiting in the wings. It smells EXACTLY like the sandalwood fan that I carried every single day when I lived in Japan. When I smell my wrist, I'm instantly back in Kyoto, bopping around Shijo Avenue. I've been looking for a sandalwood scent like this for ten years, and I'd finally given up. THANK YOU BETH! THANK YOU FOR SENDING ME THE SCENT I HAVE BEEN HUNTING FOR SINCE I WAS SIXTEEN!!!!!!!