gwynhwyfar

*swoons* This isn't the first unreleased to fall into my hands, but it is the first one that I tested rather than just sniffing from the imp. I'm a bit sorry that I did. In the vial, all I get is this amazing pure cherry, from the almond bouquet. Wet, there's a second of pure cherry and then on the next breath, there's spice. Allspice and cinnamon and ginger and ... yum. It stays yum for a good long time. The cherry does eventually calm down and mellow into the almond scent more and that just makes it more yum. So thus ... I'm a bit sorry that I did test this one because I'm totally in love and if I could do it, I would be adding this one to the list of things that I'm going to get a big bottle of when I have money. As it is, I'll be hoarding my imp, crossing my fingers and hoping that it makes it to the general catalog because this is, without a doubt, my favorite blend that includes almond. Mmmmm.

Out of the bottle: The milk scent on this was a little stronger than I expected but I tested it anyway. This was not the best idea as my skin took that rather light warm milk and turned it to yogurt that was sitting out in the sun and curdling. I had to wash it off almost immediately because my skin also did what it always does with the lunar oils and upped the scent of it to overpowering. This is going to a new home. Where it will hopefully be loved.

Oh, Alice ... *weeps* I love the notes. The imp was loaned to me by a lover who is madly in love with the oil so I was looking forward to testing it. In the bottle, it's lovely. Milk and honey and florals and a hint of citrus from the bergamot. Wet, there is a brief moment of citrus and honey and then ... It dries down. And when it dries down, it turned to complete baby powder. Sadly, I fear that I shall have to enjoy this scent on someone else's skin as she clearly is not going to work for me. If I want to smell like baby powder, that's what I have baby powder for. *sighs dramatically*

I had high hopes for this. I'm leaving my beloved university before too long -- and the even more beloved library. I was so hoping that this would remind me of the smell of late-nighters with coffee and musty and dusty old books so I could keep it and cherish it when I'm living in a town where the library was, until recently, barely five rooms big. Sadly, I have been disappointed and left heartbroken. The coffee smell is definitely there. And alone there. Not even just any coffee ... this is Irish coffee, very very strong. So strong that just a whiff made me start to sneeze. I couldn't bring myself to test it on my skin when I couldn't stop sneezing. So, with my spirit low and my heart broken, Misk U shall wander off to the swaps. Or the coal-mines, to atone for leaving me to tragically disappointed.

This wasn't something that I would have picked up on my own and was a freebie from the lab (yay for the lab!). I don't know how much help this review will really be, since I didn't get past smelling it out of the vial, but on the theory that every little bit of info helps, here it is .... Out of the bottle, all I get from this is the tobacco. Strong to the point of overpowering and strong enough that just one sniff led to wheezing. So I sealed it up, remembered how to breathe and passed it on to a new and loving home. It does sound interesting, in combination, but with only tobacco in the vial and with that being one of my strongest allergens, I couldn't get there. And I just couldn't bring myself to testing this on the skin.

In the bottle and wet: Oh, look. Dragon's blood standing on my head and jumping on me, just to make sure that I know that it's there. With drydown, the dragon's blood started to behave as the other notes began to make themselves known. As those notes came out, I got a rather aquatic and green floral along with something almost salty. That floral resolved into a very distinct lily on me with an odd but not at all unpleasant hint of mint. All of that sat and reclined on the squished into submission dragon's blood, which behaved and just acted as supporting cast to give the florals and greens a nice resiny spiciness. This, along with the other two that I've tried, may have changed my mind about dragon's blood in blends, even if the dragon's blood itself is just far too pushy when left alone on my skin. I think it's fairly likely that this will eventually become a big bottle and I have some desires to play with layering this with more mints to see if I can intensify that mint without ruining the floral-dragonblood balance.

My success with Dragon's Milk led me to trying out the other Ars Draconis scents where I had went 'well, that sounds nice except for the Dragon's Blood'. In the bottle and wet: Again, dragon's blood. Sitting there and overwhelmingly screaming that it was there while I waited patiently to see what chemistry was going to occur. This time, drydown got me a beautiful floral coming up to sit on the dragon's blood and moosh it into proper behavior. The floral smelled like pure spring -- strong lilac and lily under the lilac combining into a sweet and delicious scent, like I had a gathered armful of flowers that I could stuff my face into. Then the oil dried and settled into what it was going to be while I had it on. A spicy and incensey floral, with a very sweet scent of lilac and more lilac and the resin sitting there underneath making sure that the florals stayed spicy. This gave me wrist-to-nose disease for most of the day and is also on my big-bottle want-list.

The temptation of the listed notes lured me into trying this, despite my normal dislike for Dragon's Blood. In the bottle: Strong dragon's blood, very dark color -- I almost didn't test it, but there was a sweetness under the dragon's blood that prodded me to test it out, so I did. Boy, am I glad that I did ... Wet: The dragon's blood did what dragon's blood always does on me -- stood up and shouted at the top of its resiny lungs that it was there and was going to choke me with its intensity and then ... Drydown: Vanilla and honey came up, grabbed the dragon's blood and sat on it. They all squished together into a little gooey ball on my wrist (don't you love the imagery!) and I started to develop wrist-to-nose disease. When drydown was complete and for the entire time I had this oil on afterward, I had a serious case of wrist-to-nose disease. Compounded by a desire to chew on my own wrist. The resin gives the honey and vanilla a beautifully spicy edge and the honey and vanilla make the resin sit down, shut up and behave itself. Despite my intial reactions, before I got this and sniffing the bottle, I'm completely in love with this. This is totally on my 'big bottle' list and I plan to experiment with layering this with other scents to see what happens. It's just absolutely delicious. I don't know if I want to eat it, wear it or just roll in it -- or put it on everyone I know, but I definitely approve.

This was one of the first things up BPAL's site where I read the listed notes, especially the flowers, and my toes curled in glee as I went 'must ... have ... perfume.' My instincts were absolutely right on this. I got an imp from someone when it was announced that the Oblation were going away and between the day I tested it and the day the Oblations were discontinued, I ordered more bottles than I care to think about. I'm going to hoard this precious, even though this could easily become a signature scent for me. There is nothing in this scent that I don't like. In the bottle, the lemon is a bit strong, but that fades almost immediately upon joining with my skin. From wet to dry-down to several hours later, the scent is true on my skin from what I get from the bottle, with the lemon toned down to a supporting character for the florals -- a beautiful herbal floral that to me smells like all I love about nights in the country. Because I fell into bed the first night I tested this, too tired to shower, I learned that the honeysuckle, oddly, lingers on my skin more than the other notes, so I woke to the lovely scent of honeysuckle and it took me awhile to work out why. If this wasn't discontinued, this would be a regular in my oil box. Since it was discontinued, I'm going to cherish the imps I have and the bottles that I have on order.

Right out of the bottle, I was getting clove and cherry with a bit of vanilla off of this oil and had a moment of 'do I want to -wear- this or -drink- it?' I decided to be safe and wear it, since drinking it probably isn't healthy even if it smells delicious. Wet, the clove came up and screamed my name while doing a nice little dance to get my attention, swinging the cherry around. I still was having those thoughts about food, only now it was my own wrist that I was considering. As it dried and I came to class, the hints of vanilla and honey that I was getting from the bottle faded quite a bit. Now, several hours later, I have a rich sweet clove scent left with a kind of incense-like scent to it. I rather like this, though it's more sensual that I tend to wear for general use. I can definitely see wearing this to go out, or even stay in, on days or nights when I want to feel like a giant cat who has nothing better to do than lie in the sun and purr. But it's too heavy for me to see wearing too often. I'll be keeping the imp of this and replacing it when it's out, but I wouldn't wear it often enough to use a whole bottle before the bottle started to get kind of icky. If the vanilla and honey had stayed stronger, I probably would consider it for more general use, but with those gone, the clove just takes over the show. Although I know that wine is listed in the description of this, I only get the faintest hint of the note that is so overpowering for me in Delphi, which is good because I DO love the clove scent in Blood Kiss. If I ever have a social life again, this would be something that I could see wearing on dates. If only to see if my date thought that it was as sensual as I did. *grins* I could also see using this in the oil burner on a stay-in date. If I ever have those again with the hypothetical social life.

The idea of this oil intrigued me, as did the description, so I was excited to try this one. Out of the bottle: There was some note in the bottle that instantly seemed 'off' to me -- There was a lot of 'green' to the scent, but under the green was something that really didn't appeal to me. Despite this, I tried it on my skin. Wet: The green was stronger, as was that 'undernote.' I tried to stop smelling it in the hopes that the whatever-it-was would fade and leave me with the green that I could smell from the bay and the laurel, and the smoky incense and a hint of honey. With drydown, I was sadly disappointed. The 'off' note didn't fade at all and I ended up scrubbing this one off my wrist. I think this is the 'garbage' note that someone else mentioned -- to me, it had a sweet edge over the rest of the note, like sugar-coated-illness. It doesn't seem to be a question of body chemistry here and seems to simply be my perceptions of that note. I have a suspicion that it's the wine note that is being used here and something about it is just bad to my sense of smell. Regardless, whether I like the idea of the oil or not, this one is destined for the swap pile and is the first BPAL oil I've tried that was something that I actively disliked. I'm sure that someone will like it and give it the loving home that I really can't.

I was interested in this because of the description for a couple reasons. First, the description reminded me of a character that I used to play in a roleplay game. Second, it just sounded interesting. And third ... I have a personal connection to Coyote so I just had to test this scent out. From the bottle, I was a bit skeptical because I was getting a rather dusty scent from it. I tested a few other things and today, I just reached into the box blind and this was what came to my hand. I decided that today must be the day for dust and dabbed it on. Wet, the dust was still there and I wrinkled my nose. Then I learned that I wrinkled my nose too soon. Many years ago, there was an incense made by a little pagan shop that I frequented called 'Dream.' This was the first incense I found that could consistently guarantee me a peaceful night's sleep and general tranquility. I stopped having access to that shop and hoarded the incense that I had gotten from it. And grew sad, as I began to run out of Dream. With drydown and onward (as it's been 6 hours since I lightly reapplied before going to class and it's still going strong), Coyote smells exactly like that incense. There isn't anything floral here for me -- myrrh, amber, musk, a hint of a very soft leather and dry grass and wood. It all combines to this beautiful scent. I'm hoarding the imp and when I have funds for catalog things along with limited editions, a bottle of this (big one, too!) is going to be coming to live in my home. I want to make a linen spray out of this for my bed and I can see using this nightly in my oil burner.

This was tossed in by a kind forumite. Which I'm glad for, because I never would have tried it on my own and I quite like it! In the vial, I was still with my initial impression from the description on the site -- heavy, too-wet earthy scent and the patchouli is going to kill me. Despite that, I could pick out a faint hint of rose and was intriqued enough to test it out. Wet, it was the same as the vial and I was all set to wash it off when it started to dry-down. With the dry-down, the patchouli faded to something that didn't make me feel like my lungs were going to strangle me and the rose got to be a lot stronger. When it was finally dry, what I ended up with was this amazing earth and rose scent that smelled to me like garden soil that was a bit damp from the rain and crushed and bruised rose petals. I don't think that I'll ever get a big bottle of this, just because I don't know that I'd use a whole bottle before the oil got a bit off, but I do think that I'll be keeping an imp of it around. If it wasn't for the rose, then I wouldn't like it with just the earth, but the rose saves it for me and turns more into a garden scent.

In the bottle and on my skin, until it starts to dry-down, all I get from this is mint. I like mint, so that wasn't a bad thing, but I was a little letdown, since I was hoping for more. Then it started to dry and I got more. As the mint stopped overwhelming everything, I started to get the neroli and the violet and, oddly last, the eucalyptus. The mint didn't go away completely, so it keeps this nice and cool and tingly on me. It's a definite mood-booster for me and the first day I wore this, I was in the best mood that I'd been in all winter. The second time was the day I took certification tests and it kept me focused and awake for the whole time. The only problem I have with this one is that it fades more quickly than I'd like it to, at least from my skin. The second time I wore it, I put it on my wrists and my hair and the scent lingered on my hair until my next shower (which led to some interesting scent combinations the next day). It's very light and cheerful and is a definite on my big-bottle list. Now to add more minty scents to my possession ...

Hmm. Things that I've tried out and I get a boost out of ... The Unicorn -- To me, this is the unicorn from The Last Unicorn. Purity and water and light greens and very refressing and uplifting and sweet. Ultraviolet -- This is, hands down, the most uplifting scent from BPAL that I've tested so far. I get mint and eucalpytus with a hint of violet from it. Undertow -- Surprisingly, despite the name, this boosts my mood, too. Probably because I get a heavy mint scent out of it and mint is one of those things that perks me up. Lady of Shalott -- Another aquatic, this, with much more of a floral note to it than I get out of the others I listed. Dragon's Milk -- This is all honey and incense on me and just delicious. Dragon's Eye is another booster for me, with much more floral to it. What might help is if you can think about scents that have the desired effect for you and then look for things with that as a strong note. Like if the smell of roses is something that is a mood-booster for you, then you might want to look at the rose-heavy oils, but if it's mint that does it, then those would be a good place to start.

Since today is a light spring day with a hint of chill in the air and sunlight, and that's what I got out of the bottle of this, I decided that today was the perfect day to test out The Unicorn. As the movie quote goes, I chose wisely. In the bottle, I get herbs and a hint of mint with a nice tracery of florals through it. Very sweet and cool. For the first few seconds that it's on my skin, all I get are those florals going 'we're here, we're here, smell us, love us' but then they die down as it dries. After drydown, what I get is this glorious sweet and cold herbal with a hint of jasmine, linden like the lingering scent of sunshine around you at night when you sleep with those first sunlight-dried sheets of spring and this light aquatic note. It's calming and soothing without being distracting or something that's going to put me to sleep. I could easily see this turning into one of my favorites for general wear. It's strong enough that I can smell it, but not so overwhelming that it's going to knock people on their bottoms when I walk by, and it has an airy and innocent quality that I think would suit well for an elementary teacher. A larger bottle is going onto my 'when I have money for bottles other than LEs' list and I'm definitely going to look for another imp, as the one I have is only a partial bottle. Lovely, lovely scent. (Of course, I LOVE herbals and mints, soooo ...)