lady_pandora

Queen Gertrude is a straightforward floral that doesn't morph much. I smell violet for sure, and at least one other flower, which I think is maybe the wisteria, but don't hold me to that. It gives the impression of a powdery floral floating on the surface of a more nectary floral. It's like violet mixed with something similar to the way I remember Shadow Witch Orchid. Definitely upright and dignified. Not really my thing at the present time, but I think it's doing what it's meant to do.

Djinn is pretty heavily smoky, and to me it does have some moments of smelling cigarettey. I like it, though it's outside my usual wheelhouse, but it might be a little strong for school IMO. As for scents for teens, at that age I was very into berry and red fruit scents; I wasn't into BPAL then (I don't think it existed), but I probably would have liked scents like Bewitched, Akuma, Persephone. I like them now too, but not as much as I would have then. I was also into vanilla and probably would have liked Morocco, O (though some people find it more sexual than I do), that kind of thing. But your mileage may vary. Are there any non-BPAL perfumes you like? It could give a jumping-off point.

This is mostly a sweet musk with hints of Sprite and of a wood note that's registering more as incense-made-of-wood than the tree itself. It's really comfortable and snuggly. But I think this one may be going to the boyfriend, because this is the same musk that's in Coyote that smells like "that's nice" on me and "hubba HUBBA!" on him.

I had to try Mari Lwyd because I've always been drawn to the story of Rhiannon and to a sort of "wandering mother" archetype in general. This starts out with a burst of buttery, boozy cake. The lavender comes out a few minutes later to balance it out. It works really well--the lavender keeps the cake from being cloying; the cake keeps the lavender from being medicinal. It settles down to smell like bread baked with lavender. Mmmm. I think the ale note is registering as bread instead. I don't know if I want to smell like this, but I certainly wish I could eat it. It smells like wonderful hippie bread that someone might bring to a ritual. Then it starts doing that burnt smell I always get from the buttery/cakey scents. Dammit, skin, this is why we can't have nice things. I get it. No more cake scents. The throw gets beerier on me, too, and I don't care for the smell of beer that much unless I'm actually drinking it. This would be really great on someone else, though. (ETA: I too can smell a resemblance to Stygian Nougat. But SN works better on me because of the lack of cake.) (ETA II: Later it turns into kind of an indistinct somewhat bready cloud. Not unpleasant, but not blowing me away.)

Sweet, soft snow. This starts out mint with a soft creamy element, but one that isn't a milk note, just gives an impression of white creaminess in some way I can't pin down. It reminds me of toothpaste. The toothpaste thing calms down quickly and pine begins to overtake the mint. I also think I smell eucalyptus, but I'm totally cheating off other people's paper because I didn't identify it until someone mentioned it, and then I thought "Oh! That's what that is." A little creaminess is still in the background. There's a brief amazing stage where it smells like tinkling sleigh bells would smell if they were a scent. But the green stuff then becomes way dominant on me: the pine and eucalyptus-y thing and a note I always think of as celeryish. It's a little room-scenty to my nose. There's not much throw. The creamy note occasionally reasserts itself. Eventually I get mostly eucalyptus and the "celery" thing (dang it, what is it that smells like that to me?) and what I think is a light musk, kind of powdery. Occasionally a little of the cream thing too. I think I may amp this type of musk more than I'd like. On the upside, I don't get ozone, which is great because it means I don't have a headache. This is soft and pretty but I don't need a bottle. ETA Lab description.

This is beautiful. Definitely try it if you like incense. It smells like frankincense and myrrh and something that seems almost...edible; I think maybe this is a beeswax note, which would make total sense. Gradually I also get a note that reminds me of dragon's blood, but not BPAL's dragon's blood, which is sweeter and fruitier. This is like a different dragon's blood that an old crush of mine used to wear, a spicy, woody sort of scent. I wonder if this is something like a red sandalwood that I'm not recognizing when combined with this much incense. Anyway, it's gorgeous. Definitely considering a bottle. ETA, 3/30/2018: The more I wear this over the years, the more I'm sure this contains beeswax and pine in addition to the church incense. Beautiful scent--so soothing I used it as a sleep scent for a while.

This is mostly powdery cocoa on me--like smelling the just-opened cocoa tin, rather than the finished drink. There's a bitter roasty hint from the coffee, and I think maybe a tiny dash of hot pepper? The undertone is vanilla, which comes out more as it dries down, and adds a creaminess to it. This is really comforting, like a nice warm hug in winter.

Starts out smelling exactly like the name made me think it would; while I've never actually had hot buttered rum, it did remind me of what Harry Potter's Butterbeer smelled like in my head when I was reading the books. It dries down to being buttery, syrupy, toasted nuts. Think the filling of baklava more than any alcoholic drink. When I get really close, I get some of the burnt-cookies note my skin often gets from foody blends. I haven't pinned it down, but think it's probably related to a butter or cream accord. It's generally isn't a dealbreaker, but I kind of wish it weren't there. It does fade out though. But now I definitely want to try hot buttered rum, the drink. If there's booze that tastes anything like baklava, it should be in my pie hole immediately.

It's another episode of My Little Smellie: Resin is Magic! I originally ordered a decant of Christougenniatiko Dentrophobia figuring it might smell good on my boyfriend. Then, when I put it on to test it, I was hit first with a combination of aftershave and tobacco; that is, my grandfather. And I decided neither of us was wearing it. But then, a few minutes later, it started morphing and I realized: sorry, Boyfriend, I love you, but I'm wearing this one. So like I said, it starts out too masculine for my taste for just a few minutes, with a combo of the tobacco and the initial sharp blast of the evergreen notes. But immediately afterwards, it blooms beautifully, first becoming a big green glorious Christmas tree with a little sweet resiny opoponax rounding it out. Then, gradually, the opoponax becomes dominant with pine in a supporting role, and something almost minty bringing up the rear, and a bit of smokiness. This reminds me of nothing so much as the Sloth phenomenon, where the myrrh rounds out the vetiver note so it's softer and less macho than it sometimes is in other blends. The opoponax in Christou tones down the pine in the same way. This is so much more wearable to me than a lot of other "tree" blends. I'm really glad I gave this a chance. ETA: I just figured out what this reminds me of. It's when you burn pine tree boughs and it smells sweet and amazing. I can't call that exact scent to mind to be sure if it really smells like that or not, but that's the vibe.

Fox Sisters starts out with a juicy, lemony rose that I think might actually be the rose geranium, and then morphs gradually into a different rosy scent that I think is tea rose because it reminds me of my old bottle of Body Shop tea rose oil. (I really need to deathmatch the two.) In the drydown, the throw remains mostly tea rose while the skin scent is wood/vanilla. I usually amp apple more than this, but I don't really smell it here. This is really beautiful. I'd been thinking, I have so many rose scents, do I really have a niche for this? And then I realized, I don't think I have one that plays it this straight. I've got incensey roses and fruity roses, but this is rose shining as its own thing, and I might need a bottle of this after all. It's kind of old-fashioned and Victorian, appropriately, and is ladylike enough to wear to work or church or your grandma's house, but I really love it. It makes me happy smelling this all day, and after all, isn't that one of the things we look for in a perfume? ETA: After wearing this regularly for a while, I can finally pick out the apple peel. It doesn't really come to the fore, but instead is kind of an undertone to the rose, like if you bit into a rose petal and it tasted like apple. It gives it a nice tartness that helps to balance out the other notes.

10 years in BPAL, and this is my first Lick It! I was headachey today and thought a minty scent sounded like just the thing. I'm getting less candy cane, and more peppermint-the-plant. I feel like I can smell those velvety leaves. It reminds me of the time I realized mint was growing wild in front of my house and made tea with it. It's pleasant and will be great for other times I have a headache. Keeping the decant. There's not a ton of throw, and it faded to a whisper on one wrist in about 1.5 hours, though I can still smell it on the other. Much later in the day, when I've nearly forgotten about it, I do get a little vanilla--it's faint like the rest, but sweet and yummy-smelling. ETA: It doesn't give me a cold sensation on my wrists, but when I brought them to my nose to sniff, I did get a cool sensation on my lips from it wafting there. (And no, I did not actually Lick It. )

Gooey apple cheesecake indeed! Wet, I get the apple cheesecake as a whole, with apple and "crust" and "cream cheese" all playing together. Once it dries, my apple-amping skin makes this mostly sweet, syrupy apple in the throw, while closer up there's a bit of "burnt cookies" note that I sometimes get from cakey blends (for example, Cthulhustollen does this too). But I don't actually mind all that much, as the throw is really nice and this is a sweet, comforting, fun blend for when you just want to smell yummy.

Like schneagl, I wondered if I was making up notes every time I sniffed this! I did catch a lot of fleeting scents and mental images, and I wonder what my experience would have been if I went in completely blind, without knowing Magnificent Autumn was supposed to morph a ton on purpose. Anyway, here are the notes I got during the first hour or so, mostly in order, but sometimes one from before would reemerge: Dark green plants, wondered if it was vetiver Mint A golden cologney thing Pine and ozone Leaf smoke Golden resin (sap?) Apple Bitter fruit rind Soft powdery musk And then my skin turns it into only the soft powdery musk from that point on. It reminds me a little of something from Avon my mom let me play with as a kid, and so it's nostalgic and comforting, but it's not really my choice of perfume now. I'd rather wear Samhain. However, Magnificent Autumn is a unique scent experience and worth trying. I won't need a bottle, but I'm glad I tried it.

When first applied, Yggdrasil is a big blast of manly mint. It doesn't smell quite like any specific mint I can pin down, but I think it can be explained by a mixture of pine and wintergreen to create a dark green minty impression. In this first stage, it smells like a men's grooming product, like aftershave. Gradually, the really screaming edge evaporates off, leaving a scent that is clearly still the same stuff (dark green mint) but less tingly and more gender-neutral. It smells like an aromatherapy product, like the dark-bottle stuff in B&BW. Really nice and medicinal at the same time. And then something comes out that I really, really like, eventually revealing itself as red sandalwood. It's joined by, I think, some other wood notes I can't identify, plus the pine is still there, and something...peppery? I'm not sure exactly what's ringing peppery to me, but it is. This is a really nice and calming scent that isn't quite my personality. I haven't quite made up my mind what to do with it: -Use it for aromatherapy, or meditation. -Give it to the boyfriend. -Give it to my Heathen friend who'd get more out of the symbolism. Anyway, it's quite well done and worth trying if you like minty and woody scents.

I like orange blossom, I like myrrh, and I guessed I would like Visions of Autumn IV. Turns out my instincts were correct--I like this a lot! This starts out with myrrh, verbena, and what smells at this stage more like orange fruit than orange blossom. The verbena registers as simultaneously minty and lemony to me. There are a few minutes of a medicinal smell during the wet stage, but there's the sense that there's something cuddly here if I can wait for it a bit. Gradually, the orange turns from fruit to blossom, and the verbena acts kind of topnotey and begins to fade. As it recedes, the nag champa becomes more prominent. The orange blossom/myrrh/champa combination is warm and cozy and a little unusual. I feel like there's a scent memory here, but I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, this scent is like an orange velvet blanket. I'm not sure I need a bottle, but I'm hanging on to this decant, and wearing it when I need some coziness.

The Witch-Bride starts out with a big whiff of what I think is narcissus; this note is a heady sweet nectary flower that's also in Darkness, though the version in Witch-Bride is better, I think, since it doesn't go through a baby lotion phase. Underneath that is a green note that I've smelled in a number of perfumes and always reminds me of celery. It's greenery, leaves and stems rather than flowers. It morphs then and something really heavy and bitter takes over. I wonder if this is hemlock; I think a much more subdued version of this might be in Poisoned Apple. Behind that I can still smell the narcissus and the green note. I can feel an acrid sensation in my nose and the back of my throat. Definitely evokes the concept of poison, of a witch's poison garden. It could be in the Rappaccini collection. At about 20 minutes, the big bitterness is fading and there's more of the celery thing. Then at about 30, something sharp comes out, kind of like when opium does the hairspray thing. A little while after that, there's a somewhat dry floral I think is wisteria. Still the sharp floral and the celery. My nose is still burning. I washed this off at about the one-hour mark. It might well do something amazing after that, but something in here is an irritant to me and feels burny in my nose. It's a big decadent floral with a "poison" vibe and could be great on the right person. It's not for me, however. The closest GC to this that I've experienced is Darkness (which works better on me).

2014 version. When I first put this on, I got apple and what I thought was cranberry, though it'd not listed, and I'm guessing the cranberry impression was created by the apple or the orange interacting with the spices. The cranberry impression is fleeting, and this becomes mainly apple/orange/cinnamon. Lemon zest adds a little tartness. Once in a while, if I really go hunting for it, I can smell what I think might be the butterscotch--except my nose does something weird with the accord and I smell white chocolate instead. Clove comes out more as the apple/orange/cinnamon fade. It is kind of potpourri-y. This would be a flat-out amazing room scent, and I plan to try to use it as such. On me, I prefer Fearful Pleasure and Samhain.

Vetiver has sometimes gone really wrong on me, namely smelling like ciggy smoke, but it so much depends on what it's combined with that I've also stopped avoiding vetiver blends on principle. Sloth was my "gateway vetiver"--I have always liked myrrh and it rounds out the vetiver so nicely there, so it's green instead of acrid. I also learned to be OK with the smoky version when it fit the concept, as in Djinn, which smells like smoke but is meant to smell like smoke. The Weenie The White Witch lists vetiver as a note, but darned if I can find it in there. And a few years ago I'd have passed it up entirely just for mentioning it.

I love Sin, but I get no sandalwood from it--it's all cinnamon and patch on me! My current favorite sandalwood is Mini Magdalene. I'm all over the place as far as whether I amp sandalwood. It's pretty much all I got from Some Strangeness in the Proportion, but I can't even smell it in Sin (as mentioned) or in Jezebel, though I like both those scents.

I've needed this scent all my life. It's really seasonal and not for every day, but I'll be getting a lot of use out of this when fall rolls back around. I get primarily patchouli and spiced apple--it's more toward apple pie than cider on me, actually, syrupy sweet. Most of the throw is apple, while close to the skin it's a combo of the apple and the patch. The earthy patch keeps it nicely grounded and sets it apart from my massive pile of other apple scents (yes, I loves me some apple scents). I don't get much in the way of the woods--if they're here, the patchouli is subsuming them. I might try a layer with something like Djinn, just to see what happens, because I do associate autumn strongly with woodsmoke. But this is just amazingly beautiful.

I was really touched by the story behind Hearts for Ghost Friends and knew I had to try it. I think Lilith understands more about the connection between the living and the dead than most adults, myself included! Right out of the vial I get a strong blast of magnolia, but that quickly fades to leave a dominant floral note I can't identify. It reminds me of some lily scents I've tried, though that's not listed here. It reminds me of another perfume oil I have, a non-BPAL, that has carnation as its only listed note in common with Hearts for Ghost Friends. But carnation is usually said to be spicy, and this doesn't register as spicy. I'm tentatively thinking it might be oleander. But I don't know. Anyway, it's a soft lush floral note, and I think I can sniff a little rose and white musk underneath it. I can definitely see this as a mournful scent and as a NOLA scent. (I'm in the middle of my usual winter reread of The Witching Hour, and I think this scent would be at home in some scenes of that book, such as Deirdre's funeral or even just some of the garden scenes.) It does have moments where it reminds me of something my grandmother might have worn, but as my grandmother is among my ghost friends, this is a feature and not a bug. Very evocative of the concept, and definitely an oil I'll wear when I want to honor the dead. ETA: A ton of staying power too. It's still going strong in the morning, still mostly that big unknown flower, now backed up by frankincense in place of the rose and musk.

I made sure to order on Black Friday because I wanted Seven Herbs Charm for its magical properties. What I didn't expect was to also really like the scent, especially after the reviews started coming in and saying "lemon." I figured, shrug, I'll anoint my money with it or something. Instead, this blend dragged me kicking and screaming into liking it while I flailed around shouting "But I don't even LIKE lemon!" It starts out with a lot of lemon scent and something creamy and sweet underneath, which turns out to be vanilla, but isn't really evident as such yet. I kind of get the lemon bar association, but it also makes me think of a really nice creamy lemon soap, and also I think I had a doll that smelled like this as a kid. Maybe I had the lemon Strawberry Shortcake doll? I don't remember, but this is really comforting and nostalgic in a way that lemon often isn't on me. Over the hours it shifts from LEMON and vanilla toward VANILLA and lemon, and if anything, it's even nicer in its later mostly-vanilla stage. It kind of smells like half of Dorian. So if you like Dorian, you'll probably like it, but if you have Dorian already, you probably don't need to go on a mad hunt for Seven Herbs Charm now that it's passed. I probably smell like dolls. (I don't really mind.) I also got some killer deals at the grocery store while wearing it. I'll definitely get this one out when I need a burst of luck or prosperity mojo.

I wasn't really expecting Fettered in the Shackles of the Drug to be so...bright. Especially in the beginning. At first dab, I was thinking "creamsicle!", and it calmed down a few minutes later into something more like a sweet orangey shampoo. The neroli here is really sweet and bright on me, kind of like what I remember of Akuma (which, admittedly, I haven't smelled in a long time). When this note evaporates, what it leaves behind is a soft, faint opium scent. It hangs close to the skin with little throw, but it's that really niiiice opium note that smells like powdery poppy incense, not hairspray. I can kind of make out anise if I really go looking for it, but it's not immediately apparent. I like this, probably more as a summer scent. I think I'm going to stow it away till it's hot out, at which time (a) I'll appreciate its citrusy brightness more, and ( maybe a little aging will have lent it a little more throw and staying power. It's not at all what I expected (I think the gothiness of the story "Ligeia" had me expecting more gloom than any of the Ligeia oils I've tried have possessed), but it's extremely pretty and agrees well with my chemistry. ETA: What do you know, I can still kind of smell the opium this morning. So it actually does stick around, but is really faint the whole time. My skin is weird.

Sheol is a blend I've long procrastinated trying, simply because I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the ingredients. I finally decided to order an imp after reading another forumite's passionate love of it. This review will contain some guesswork, and a lot of hedging comparisons to other things. The dominant note when it's wet is sort of a sharp lemony floral. When I was a kid, we had this hollow spindle for the toilet paper that had crystals of air freshener in it. That's what this reminds me of. It's also the note that sometimes gives me pause in Brides of Dracula. They have almost nothing in common, so I'm pointing a tentative accusatory finger at lily. I don't even think it actually smells bad--it's just an off-putting scent memory of something that I think probably smells just fine, objectively. At about 30 minutes, there's a split between the throw and the on-skin scent. On my skin, the air freshener is still there along with something kind of fizzy, reminiscent of the hedione in She Whose Handmaiden Was Love. The throw is simply gorgeous, a nuttyfruitygolden glowy thing that puts me in mind of one facet of a favorite, Bijoux Y'ha-nthlei, and comparing those two note lists, I'm coming up with the heliotrope plus probably the labdanum, since I know that's used in amber. BPALs normally take about an hour to reach their full promise on me, but Sheol actually takes a little longer--it was at about 1:20 that I noticed the shift. Oh, hello, copal. I most recently smelled and liked this in Gas Lamps' Flare. In the throw, it adds a beautiful incensey layer to the nuttyfruitygolden thing. On the skin, it's intoxicatingly smoky and also a little sweet, and all but drowns out the air freshener note. I...actually think I love this. It ends up so amazingly beautiful, and it tells its story perfectly--here are these bright things, and in comes smoke to turn out the light (and thankfully, not all of the light; the thing I think is heliotrope is still around). I haven't quite figured out what to wear it for yet. It seems too carefully crafted to be a casual fragrance and too odd for a lot of formal events. But I'll figure something out.

I told myself I could have one Phoenix oil, and the one I settled on was This World, Where Death Reigns. I love rose/resin combos, and it has a simple note list with no death notes in it, so it seemed a safe choice. It actually takes about an hour, on me, to really start behaving nicely. Right out of the bottle, I got...a cleaning product smell? Noooo! I couldn't imagine what was causing this, and was so bummed. About ten minutes later, it seems to start getting a few things figured out, but still doesn't smell like rose and myrrh. If I didn't know what notes were in it, I'd have guessed some kind of bitter wine note, or maybe raisins? It had me scratching my head. Oh. But. After about an hour it's amazing. It's definitely rose and myrrh. Very simple, very beautiful, and a little mournful in a way that reminds me of O Love and Time and Sin. And it doesn't really morph after that point either. I normally don't like oils that are annoying in their wet stage, but this is just so lovely once it dries. I'll just have to remember to put it on a little while before I need to be somewhere. I'm really glad I took the chance on this.