lady_pandora

This smells exactly like a butterscotch candy on me. It's yummy, but maybe a bit too foody. I need to see what it's like layered with some other stuff.

I'm seeing a lot of reviews where this got dry and dusty, and it is with great witchy glee that I report that my fears of dusty perfume were not realized! This is a lovely, sensual scent; the orchid is dripping with rain and full of nectar. It's almost foody on me. Yum. I love these simple florals this time of year.

Ah, the "Chantilly Effect." See, my late grandma wore Chantilly. Lots and lots of Chantilly. I associate the smell very strongly with her, and as such, it's a very nostalgic and comfortable thing, while at the same time not really something I want to smell like most of the time. However, I think she must have passed her chemistry down to me. Sometimes, blends that contain both floral notes and either musk or incense notes, will randomly morph into my grandma's cologne on me. This is one of them. I loved this in the bottle. I loved it for the first 5 minutes on my skin. I loved it on someone else. It's such a lovely, seductive, incensey blend with a hint of floral, and something I could swear is lotus even though it's not listed. Yet on me? Chantilly. *smites body chemistry* I'm going to donate it to the friend it smells so yummy on.

Akuma smells just like a creamsicle on me. I actually *only* like it when it's 80+ degrees out.

I want to say this was a frimp from the Lab. I'm going through my imp box at the moment and trying out scents I've underappreciated or not tried yet. It's like getting a new shipment of BPAL, except without cleaning out my funds! On me, this is a bright, refreshing orange, with a slight touch of amber underneath to mellow it out. Compared to other BPAL orangey scents I've tried: --Less bubblegummy/candyish than Akuma --Stronger orange note and less prominent amber note than Forbidden Fruit --MUCH less amber than Haunted Palace; MP is an orange scent for summer, while HP is more of a fall/winter orange scent, if that makes any sense. This is a great scent for hot days, very "beachy."

This is a light floral with a slight citrusy edge--reminds me of grapefruit, or maybe a really subtle lemon. I know it can't really be lemon, because lemon amps up on my skin and turns to gross dishwashing liquid, while this citrus is light and fresh and effervescent. Yeah, effervescent is a good word for this scent. It makes me think of the colors white and silver, and of innocence and purity. It smells really good, though I don't know if I'm enough of a good girl to pull it off!

This starts out with the way-too-sweet cough syrup smell I get from most of the berry BPALs in the bottle. A few minutes later, it mellows nicely to a sort of "head shop" blend. You know the one. I can't pick out exactly what the notes are, it's just that scent you smell when you wander into a hippie store. Swirling mixtures of incense, etc. The plum is also there and quite pleasant, but not dominant. A very spiritual blend, great for meditation, etc.

Yay, got my Undies Monster!!! Thank you Lab! This is buttercream icing for the first five minutes, then dries down to yummy vanilla. GOOD vanilla, not the cheap drugstore lotion type vanilla. Just...yum. I could swear I'm catching a whiff of the saffron, too, though my friends couldn't smell it. I don't explicitly smell the rum, though the whole thing does kind of remind me of a tropical alcoholic beverage (pina colada or similar), so I bet it's lurking in there somewhere. No sandalwood, alas, but this is quite nice. Not overtly sexual, like one might expect of a scent called Underpants, but more of a mellow, get-drunk-with-the-girls-and-gossip sort of scent.

This was a frimp from the Lab. I read the notes before trying it, and was convinced I'd hate it because of the ozone. As it turns out, the ozone never reared its ugly head, and I do rather like this scent. However, I like it in a sort of disturbing way that guarantees I won't really wear it much. See, this smells just like this disastrous love affair I had a while back... First note is red wine, which is what started the trouble in the first place. It has an undernote of tobacco. At this early stage, the tobacco is more "pipe tobacco, before you smoke it" than "already on fire tobacco." The wine fades after a few minutes, leaving the mingled scents of leather and cigarette smoke (not pipe tobacco anymore). Which was, well, exactly what he smelled like. He smoked like a chimney and wore this amazing leather jacket... Well, I digress. Anyway, it reminds me way too much of him, and brings up thoughts I'm better off not thinking. I might just give it to one of my male friends, since it's definitely a guy scent. ETA: I held onto my imp and decided to wear it recently, hoping to use the smoke/leather combo to conjure up the sort of take-no-prisoners, no-B.S. energy this guy always projects, because I had some difficult people to deal with. I figured I could manage a few hours of smelling like him if it meant a little bit of extra moxie. Well, it worked for a few hours, but then the smoke and leather dissipated and left behind the wine and UGH, THE OZONE. I should have known my old nemesis ozone would appear sooner or later. Migraine time. *sigh* Maybe I should give this one away after all.

Both dragon's blood and amber love my skin like whoa, so this is a very good blend for me. I don't pick up much else in the blend other than these two notes, so if you like them you'll probably like Blood Amber, and if you dislike them you might want to keep well away. Sorry, this is going to be another one of those short reviews! Basically, this smells like dragon's blood and amber in equal measure, staying strong for hours without much morphing. (Your mileage may vary. Again, these are two of my skin's favorite notes.) I find it to be a very mellow, low-key scent, pleasantly agreeable without being in-your-face sexy or in any way distracting. This one is a good one for chilling around the house or a relaxed evening with friends. Definitely a "blue jeans" scent on me, not a "silks and satins" scent, if that makes sense. But very, very good to have around.

(I love the questions that involve putting a color to a smell--my brain works like that all the time, and so these questions are fun!) Blood Amber=red and gold Sed Non Satiata=reddish brown Sin=reddish brown Blood Lotus=red and pale yellow Lilith=dark purplish red Khephra=golden brown Cerberus (discontinued)=dark red and brown

Hecate is definitely very almond! It's like a shot of amaretto. I've also seen Black Phoenix recommended for almondy goodness, though I haven't tried it. You might want to see if you can find any Cerberus for sale or swap. It doesn't say cherry in the description, but on me and lots of others, it was like a chocolate-covered cherry.

Ozone? No wonder this was faintly headache-inducing. I think I have a bit of an allergy to ozone notes, whatever's in them. I didn't pick out the ozone until I read the Lab's description--though it does make sense, now that I recall the headache. What this really made me think of, actually, once it hit my skin and morphed like crazy, was something like Emeraude or one of the other heavy floral perfumes my grandmother used to give me for Christmas. Alas, I think this one does not work on my skin. It's green and sharp and could very well be interesting on someone else.

Persephone, Forbidden Fruit, Marie, Empyreal Mist...I'm sure I'll think of more later!

When the Lupercalia update came out, I could only afford one 5ml. Based on the listed notes, it came down to a choice between Khajuraho and Smut. I finally chose Smut. Now that I've tried Khajuraho, I must say, I'm still glad I picked Smut, which does this amazing almost-second-skin thing on me, but I wouldn't have been amiss with Khajuraho either. I'm not sure I should be trusted to pick out the individual notes in this--I could have sworn I smelled jasmine, yet it doesn't seem to actually be there--but this is lovely. This is what I wanted to get from Pannychis when I first read the description ages ago--a sensual floral with a hint of incense. Pannychis is lovely but my skin amps the jasmine and drowns the other notes; in Khajuraho, I get this beautiful, sexy floral with hints of incense. YAY!!!!

This is a big fat slab of chocolate cake. While this is an amazing facsimile of a big fat slab of chocolate cake, I think it may be too foody even for me, the Honey- and Sugar-Obsessed One. But oh, did it ever make me crave chocolate cake.

This one actually goes really honey-ish on me, or at least that was the way it smelled to my nose. A friend remarked that it smelled a bit like coconut! Anyway, it was this warm sweetness that reminded me a lot of O (maybe O is a similar type of vanilla and *that's* what I'm recognizing here and not the honey? I sometimes fail at picking out notes, but I can usually tell you what they remind me of.) As it dries down, I get a subtle whiff of floral. It's a floral I can't identify--but then, I'm unfamiliar with stephanotis. It's a youthful, almost effervescent floral note, very pretty and sort of flirty. I'm definitely ordering some of this at some point.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I definitely get a coconutty scent, and vanilla. I didn't pick out mint until after I'd heard it was in there, but once I knew it was there, I wondered how I'd missed it. The mint is great, adding a freshness and a sharpness that Milk Moon would otherwise lack. The problem is that, somewhere underneath these yummy notes, I can't shake the impression of the milk that's left over once you've eaten a bowl of sugary cereal. (When I was a kid, the parents would make us drink it so as not to waste it, and I never much liked drinking milk and *really* didn't like post-cereal milk.) There's something cloying about this one, such that my decanted imp of it never really got into circulation. I did bring it to ritual for Imbolc, and a friend accidentally spilled it. Rest in peace, Milk Moon, and I'm sorry you didn't quite work. At least I have Black Pearl now for my coconut needs, and it lacks the cereal-milk note.

So my friend and I went in together on a 10ml of Undertow, and decided to split the frimps between us. One was Tintagel; the other was The Lion. She wanted the Tintagel more, so I was worried I'd like it better too, and that we'd have to fight for it! Put The Lion on one wrist and Tintagel on the other. After five minutes, my Lion wrist smelled like yummy mellow amber. My Tintagel wrist smelled like--cherry bathroom cleaner? Seriously. I don't know if it's the bayberry or what, but this just does not agree with my chemistry at all. It smells like the cloying fake-cherry bathroom cleaner they use at work. My friend and I had no trouble divvying up the frimps. Sorry, Lab.

Sorry, this is going to be a rather short review. The Lion is, quite simply, a warm, unobtrusive amber scent, soft and mellow. It works quite well on my skin, as most ambers do. It doesn't knock me dead like some of the more dramatic amber blends do (Haunted Palace, anyone?), but it's often the unobtrusive scents that I end up wearing a lot, because they're not overpowering. Warm and comfortable; the "favorite pair of old jeans" of amber scents. ADDED Nov. 22: This was a frimp from the lab, and it took me a long time to really come around to appreciating it, sadly. I remember it smelling good when I first tried it, but it didn't knock my socks off, probably because I had a bunch of other scents dotted up and down my arms, drowning it out! So it sort of collected dust in my imp box until today, when I was browsing the forums and saw a random comment comparing The Lion to Bengal. As I've just run out of Bengal, I decided it was time to give this kitty another try. To me, this definitely does belong in the same scent "family" with Bengal, and to some extent Sed Non Satiata. SNS smells like a darker, sexier version of Bengal on me, and conversely, The Lion smells like a lighter, less sexual Bengal. It definitely has that same "chai latte" blend of spices that made Bengal such a great morning pick-me-up for me. I don't know what spices are in The Lion, but I smell cinnamon, maybe ginger...quite yummy and delightful. The longer I leave it on, the stronger the amber becomes. This was to be expected. My skin loves amber beyond reason. But fortunately, it doesn't drown the other notes when it does. I may not buy a big bottle of this--I like Bengal slightly better, and they fill the same niche--but I'll definitely use up this imp! Thank you lab!

Oh dear. A friend had this, and I tried it on at a party. I sniffed my wrist, and lo and behold-- It smelled like a dank cave. I said, "Hey everybody, The Coiled Serpent smells like a dank cave on me!" They all thought I was kidding. Everybody sniffed my wrist, and agreed: It smelled like a dank cave. I can usually do patchouli, but there's something in this that is just not working at ALL on me. Though I did find myself wishing I had an imp of it last night when I was writing a story involving a cave, and wanted some inspiration...

Re-reviewing due to technical difficulties. This is, hands-down, my favorite BPAL ever. There's no need to do the timetable of what notes emerge when; this doesn't change much on my skin. The sugar note predominates, so sweet in the best sort of way, reminding me a lot of a discontinued Bath and Body Works scent called "Sugar Plum" which I loved dearly, and which had a very "second skin" effect on me. The booze lurks underneath, lending Smut a more grown-up quality than the old B&BW scent. This is so good, I had to stop wearing it to work. Not because it's risque, but because I kept being distracted by it. It's hard to type when you're sniffing your wrists every 10 seconds.

Re-reviewing due to technical difficulties. This was a frimp from the big group order my friends and I did in February. I had high hopes for it, since I was the kid who used to eat all the black jellybeans that the other kids didn't want! I love black licorice, and I was told that Absinthe smelled like licorice. Right out of the bottle, it's mostly mint, which is also a good thing. After a few minutes, the anise emerges, with its yummy licorice-ness. Then, a GIANT LEMON stomps in, thwacks the other ingredients over the head with a club, and drags them back to its lemony cave. Ugh, lemon just does NOT work on me. It was nasty in Sea of Glass and is nasty in this. Apparently, my skin likes to amp lemon to the forefront and make it smell nasty. Imean, we're talking "lemon dishwashing liquid" here. Ick.

My first thought is that this reminds me of Milk Moon, only better. Milk Moon fell prey to a bit of cloyingness on my skin. This is similar in some ways, but lacks whatever made Milk Moon cloying. The main note is the coconut. I also get a whiff of something that makes me think "vanilla". (I think this must be the hazelnut.) I don't really get iris. The musk is subtle and quiet, but I think it may be the crucial thing that keeps this from being cavity-inducingly sweet. Very warm, sweet without being *too* sweet. Yummy.

My original review perished in the board crash. This was a frimp from the Lab--I'd been part of a big group order, and we divvied up the frimps, and this was one of the ones I got. Wet, I do get a slight peanut butter scent! As it dries down, the peanut butter goes away; it doesn't stick around long enough to be annoying. The note that dominates is the red patchouli, which seems to have a strong similarity to dragon's blood on my skin. This is a very, very good thing. Underneath the patchouli/dragon's blood note, there is still a slight nutty note. The honey doesn't really add another scent, so to speak; it just sort of rounds out the patchouli and gives it a sweet mellowness. This has been compared to Smut a lot, but it doesn't smell like Smut at all on me. I love both of them. But for different reasons.