Tournesol Noir

If this scent were a book, it would be Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. Mouse's Long and Sad Tale starts out mostly vanilla and sweet pea, then ends up almost exactly like Antique Lace on me, except deeper, more sophisticated, resiny and with an elusive bit of musk that makes it a lot more feral than an innocent vanilla-and-sweet-pea combo has any right to be. Basically an Antique Lace for the philosopher. Wearing it kind of makes me feel like a Catholic schoolgirl on the cusp of womanhood, dressed in plaid and dutifully reading Aquinas during the day, but with just the hint of a few dark secrets. This is a far cry from the heady spice scents I usually favour, but it's so beautiful and evocative and perfectly balanced! How can I resist? Big bottle going in next order for sure.

This scent smells overpoweringly grapefruity in the vial, with just the barest hint of tea and ginger. On my skin, it smells overpoweringly like tea and precious little else. There's a time when the oil is still visible as a faint sheen on my wrist where the bitter tang of grapefruit and the freshness of the white tea are perfectly balanced with a subtle, perfectly little spike of ginger, rounded out by a floral note that I assume is the apple blossom. The scent is absolutely delightful at that moment, but, sadly, it is only fleeting and a few seconds later everything gets gobbled up except the tea. I will probably hold on to the imp, just because it's summer and sometimes it's nice to smell a little bit of tea. But no repurchases for me.

Irish cream! Irish cream! Irish cream! That's what my bottle of Misk U smells like, with a hint of something slightly musty at the very back, which I suspect you'd only be able to smell if you were really looking for it, and a little tiny bit of smoke. I want to try this on the boy. It smells like a middle aged English gentleman in a tweed jacket smoking a pipe and sitting alone in a spacious library filled wall to wall with expensive, rare, leather-bound books on polished mahogany shelves. Distinguished, classy, and leg-numbingly sexy. (Yeah, okay, so we've established that I have weird fantasies) My skin amps up the musty smell. It still smells like Irish cream coffee, but there is definitely something else in there now that seems to get slightly stronger and slightly more acrid with the dry down. However, when I tried it on last week before I got my period, it pretty much smelled like Irish cream coffee all the way through, so this might be a hormone thing. I will give this scent a few more tries throughout the month before deciding whether I want to keep it. Most likely, I'll sell the bottle but first decant off one or two imps for myself, if only just to keep around and sniff because it is so good in the bottle. Or I'll give it to the boy.

I smell the grape and peach strongest in the imp, but there's a definite floral presence as well. It's absolutely heavenly! Makes me think of a forest at night-time, after a long rain. Very beautiful. Wet, it smells the same. My skin amped up the florals a bit on the dry down, but there is still a distinguishable fruity presence. Unfortunately, it disappears after only a few hours. . .but, oh, it just smells so lovely, I don't think I'd be able to resist a big bottle of this, even if I have to reapply thrice a day.

This was my first Lunacy blend, and, wow, it does not disappoint. It smells exactly like the buttery coconut cookies I used to filch from the box my mother kept on the top shelf when I was younger. And it doesn't change very much, although the coconut has faded slightly (it is now the fourth hour), and it's just a very creamy, almost caramely scent now. Makes me want to eat my wrist. This is definitely the best foody scent that I've smelled so far and is going in my top 5. I'm kicking myself for only ordering one bottle.

I was in love with the scent from the moment I caught the first whiff of it. The most noticeable scents are the honey and ylang ylang, and it stays true on me pretty much the whole way through. This is definitely Eve before the fall -- innocent, beautiful, carefree, feminine. I'm glad I got a big bottle of this without waiting to try the imp, it is absolutely gorgeous.

Wet: sugary, bubblegum sweet. Dry: I think my skin amps rummy scents. Nothing I've tried that contains rum has worked on me, because the rum ends up being really strong, as if I've just been drinking heavily. The tobacco comes up too. The scent ends up being exactly true to the description. To me, it smells like smoky, rummy, lecherous Humbert Humbert tumbling bubblegum-sweet Lolita in her bedroom on a pink, fluffy comforter. Not my kink.

This scent does the most wonderful things on me. At the beginning of my cycle, it's all sweet vanilla -- the spices fade within twenty minutes of application and Snake Oil becomes a "skin scent," a scent which, in an ideal world, my skin would always smell like. The further on in my cycle I get, the more vanilla is eaten and the less spices, and therefore the more sexy the scent becomes. Fortunately, I like both vanilla and spice, so Snake Oil is perfect for me on any occasion.

Pina colada, pina colada, pina colada. I don't smell anything but pina colada. I'm probably in the minority on this, but I hate pina coladas. Fortunately, I have a friend who loves pina coladas, so I gifted it to her.

My skin ate up all the champagne. So I was left with sugary strawberries, which is a very pleasant scent, but not very me. I'd have to force myself to wear it if I'd kept the imp. I hope its new owner likes it better.

This smells lovely very true to its description while in the bottle, but turns a sickly laundry-detergent scent on me. If I wanted to smell like laundry detergent, I'd shorten the rinse cycle on my washing machine. Into the swap pile it goes.

The tea and lemon are the most noticeable scents at the beginning. Then the tea mellows and the vanilla and musk come through to make it heady and sensual. To me, it is the olfactory embodiment of The Picture of Dorian Gray -- starting with aching innocence, then gradually darkening to hedonism and corruption. But in a very good way. I'm very glad this works out well on me, as Oscar Wilde is my single favourite English author. A big bottle of Dorian is definitely making its way to me some time soon. An additional bonus: I love this on my boy. But I'm only going to use it on him when we're alone. . .I don't want him anywhere else when he's wearing this scent.

It smells lovely in the bottle -- a nice, sharp, woody scent. But it turns to pure frankincense within a few minutes of hitting my skin. This imp is going in the swap pile.

Wow. This was only the fourth BPAL imp I tried, so I can't say I've found *my* scent, but I think it's about as close as I'm gonna get for a while. From the bottle, I picked up a lot of almond and somelike like musk. Within a few minutes of hitting my wrist, the musk fades, vanilla (I think it's vanilla. . .it's really sweet, and my skin tends to amp vanilla) begins to come out, and the almond subsides so that all the ingredients were blended in perfect harmony and no one seemed to dominate over the others. Then it stays like that. This also has tremendous staying power on me. I put it on before dinner last evening, and this morning it still smelt just as good as last night. I was almost reluctant to get into the shower. I love this scent! From the moment it touches my skin until the moment I wash it off it smells heavenly. *adds to 10 mL wishlist*

Originally got it in a swap because I was very curious how lust would smell, even though my skin normally amps up patchouli to the point of unbearable. Well, it did within less than half a minute of application. The smell lingered for about half an hour. But then it mellowed, and I'm getting a lot more of the ylang ylang and myrrh now. Not overtly sexy, I'd say, more a sophisticated, dusky, understated sexy. Except for the first 30 minutes, I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by it. I think I'll wait 'til after I've tried it one or two more times to decide how much I like it. And try a few dabs on the boything, too. . .maybe the lustiness it will be more obvious on him.