emzebel

I love this, both on me and on my husband - this is such a wonderfully warm, sunbaked blend of vanilla and cedar...delish.

This is very sweet and almost nutty to my nose. I love anise, but Kyoto fades on me too quickly for me to get a whiff of anything in particular. Damn chemistry.

Tamora starts off as sewwt honeyed fruit - very sweet - then begins to mellow, with some florals breezing in with a lot of vanilla-amber and some spice. This is very pretty, but I tend to amp amber and this gets to be a little much for me...too bad, because I love almost every note to pieces.

Green, green, green. This scent is so perfectly attuned to the image it represents it is staggering - the papyrus, the lute, the critters... This is a very herbal, green scent, but it is not overtly masculine - at least not to me, then again, I like a lot of "masculine" scents. I'm having a very difficult time describing it, to be honest. But it is very fresh, and evocative, and I like it a lot.

Two, Five Seven is my favorite of all of BPAL's rose scents - it smells just like a rose garden in summer, with a wide variety of variatals (red roses have never been my favorite), and the scent of dewy fresh mown grass. It is such a wonderful, summery combination...just perfect.

In the imp, this is very rich and foody, with something sort of bitter in the background - maybe the currents? On my skin, the Knave is true to his nature, displaying a buttery, rich cake scent, thick with bitter fruit and something that smells almost dusty. When my husband smelled this on me, he said I smelled like a cigar, and that's about right - with my chemistry, this smells like one of those sweet cigarillos that they make to try to get the kiddies hooked.

Mmm. Rich creamy lily, crossed with sensual cloven spices - almost like lilies meet Voodoo Queen, except that I don't need to get a room. I am quite taken with this.

To my nose, both in the bottle and on my skin, Croquet is very rich and spicy, dominated by musk and woody patchouli and bergamont and sage, with a hint of rose - the citrus melange does peek out, but mostly to lighten and brighten, but not as a dominant presense here. I cannot smell specific fruits at all, to be honest - just a nice, fresh overtone. I like this a lot.

Mmm - this is bright and fruity and happy. Wet, this screams OMG, CITRUS JOY!!!! As it dries, the other notes - the plum blossom, the bamboo, the breath of DB, and maybe just a whiff of peony come out. This is actually very soft and mild on my skin - it is definitely bright and happy, but it is doesn't scream to be smelled once it's on. I expect I will be getting a lot of use out of this for spring.

This is a bright, rich scent - with a definite fruity, sunny overtone, and a deeper, almost incensy base. The two mix wonderfully for a very contemplative take on the spiritual side of spring.

A light herbal scent with a undertone of chilled flowers. This is very pretty and it is wonderfully appropriate for the March moon, in this month of transition from winter to spring.

On me, this is a lot lighter than I expected - there is definitely a scent of earthy pine, but the salt spray really lightens it, and the green tea makes it almost sweet with my chemistry. While the first few reviews made me think this would be too dark and gloomy, this is actually a wonderfully light woodsy scent - like the scent of a oceanside forest warming in the sun after a rainstorm.

Purge, purify, cleanse. Sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, shea oil, coconut milk, dead sea salts, witch hazel, lemongrass essential oil, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Elixir blend. I could smell this baby through it's baggie - fresh and clean and citrusy - I have not tried the Detox oil yet, but this is definitely a scent that I can imagine would be very refreshing and purifying...As a lover of herby citrusy scents, I am definitely wanting to try the oil just from sniffing this! In the water this has a huge scent and fizzy release - it fizzes for a looooooong time and the initial scent is strong, but not overwhelming. As someone who normally uses bubbles rather than bombs, I really liked the softness and freshness of the water - thanks to the oils and the sea salts. There is even an almost emulsfying effect - not sudsy, don't get me wrong, but fizzy bubbles. Sitting emerged in the water, there was a great refreshing citrusy scent, and I loved the use of sea salt for its, well, detoxifying properties - it gave the water a fresh, slippery, deep cleansing feel that was a terrific complement with the nature of the oil and the purpose. This is definitely one that will be slipping into my cart again!

Snappy-quick PMS relief. Sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, shea oil, coconut milk, evening primrose oil, witch hazel, Indian geranium essential oil, sweet fennel essential oil, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Elixir blend. So, what better time to try the PMS bomb than while in the throws of PMS, eh? I have not had the good fortune to sample the oil that infuses this wonderful fizzing ball of diffusing goodness, but based on my experience this weekend, it is in my next order, I assure you. The "Bitch Bomb" was a quick fizzing, water softening, fresh scented relief - it relaxed my cranky forehead, it soothed my burgeoning cramps, and generally just made me feel much less like a raging ball of hormonal rage and random irritations. I cannot really pin down a specific scent for this Boom, but it was nice, fresh, but not overly floral or fruity or anything really - definitely scented, but inoffensive, as something targeted for the cranky should be. It was not as soft and moisturizing as the bombs I've tried to date, but it was still quite soft, and did not require any additional bubbles or fizzing or bells or whistles - just nice soft Bitch (b gone)...

Chaos Theory CLXXIII: Clearly this bottle has done some traveling. But it is home now. I get a sweet, light musk from this, blended with a rich mint and a hint of citrus. This is a light fresh blend, just perfect as we move into spring.

Mmmm. Sweet spicy goodness - this is a richy clove note, but with a moistness that is beyond the spice cabinet and makes this very wearable.

I really like the scent of this in the bottle - it is a rich, fruity resinous scent, backed up with some interesting dark florals. And at first this smells like exactly what I would expect on my skin - however, my skin eats this for breakfast - it just vanishes. I want to try it a couple more times, but based on my first tests, this scent seems to be in my chemical blind spot...then again, that's what scent lockets and unscented tarts are for, yes?

Very rich and red and peppery - this is a hot, firy blend. I like the spicyness of this one, and since Dragon's Blood tends toward sweet on me, it is a nice combination. I can get whiffs of the honeysuckle and the ginger and a vanilla which I think is coming from the opoponax. I like this a lot.

Very very crisp floral - there is something in here, the narcissus, perhaps, that doesn't agree with me - it is a wee bit too dusty, a wee to almost acrit with my chemistry. However, if you are a lover of white florals, this is a lovely blend that so perfectly captures the painting that is its inspiration.

Wow. Just wow. Words cannot express just how beautiful this scent is. I kept smelling something fresh and green and lovely on the the Metro this morning - something lightly fruity, and musky and just fresh and clean and gorgeous - then I realized it was me! This is the perfect summer scent; the perfect I want it to be summer scent; the perfect I-feel-like-crap-today-and-want-something-uplifting scent. And the fact that it makes me giggle like a fool when I think of the inspiration doesn't hurt either.

Just yesterday, I was trying another Dragon's Blood blend and thinking, ooh, a DB blend with apple would be lovely for spring. Then I remembered that I had an imp of Ladon sitting on my dresser waiting to be tried. Of course Beth and Brian had thought of this - and a lovely combination it is - this is fruity and sweet, with the rich smoky redness of the DB to make it a rich counterpart to more typical apple blends. I adore this.

Warm, red, with whiffs of smoke, cherry, resin and a hint of floral. I think of DB as a note, not as something to be worn on its own, and I definitely prefer it that way, but this is still something to try.

I swapped for a bottle of this, having not re-checked the notes, because I love Dragon's Blood and want to try all of the Ars Draconis scents on principle. This scent is absolutely gorgeous on me - rich and resinous - redolent with the DB and amber and a whiff of smoke. I get almost no floral from this, and if I had to guess, I would have put money on this having a splash of the Lab's Red Musk note. Very very odd, skin chemistry...but I'm not complaining.

How can I not have reviewed the lovely Lucretia yet? Lucretia, which I adore, despite the violet and iris? Lucretia, the dark, musky beauty, so alluring, so mysterious, such a red red potion of fruit and sage and musk and vanilla. Ah, Lucretia...

This is a very strange blend on my skin - I get almost nothing that I would expect from the listed notes and instead, smokey nuts, with maybe a hint of floral. It's odd. Odd I tell you.