emzebel

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.

Head on, Cup of Death is a very pretty sweet floral - very appealing, attractive, exactly what a cup of deadly poision should be.

Underneath, there is a definitely green note - which did not read as herbal to me, so much as grassy green.

All in all, an interesting blend.

This has a very fresh, clean tone to my nose - I can see where other posters have noted a hair salon - to me it is not quite aftershave, but definitely a light masculine. Attractive, the kind of comforting scent I'd like to snuggle into. I honestly could not have picked a single note out of this - which is sometimes a good thing. Ya know?

This is a sweet, light floral apple scent - very pretty, very spring like. I can see how there are other fruits in here, but I immediately read them as apple. Odd that.

This is the stuff - rich, red and spicy. I get almost a hot mulled wine sense from this- I guess from the richness of the base notes and the spices and citrus tinge. I like this blend muchly and shall be adding it to my bottle list post haste.

Damn, but I wish I could wear caramel notes, but caramel in anything, no matter how amazing the rest of the notes - mysore sandalwood, aged patchouli, bourbon vanilla - the caramel take over and that is all that I can smell. Thick, heavy, burnt caramel sugar.

And I don't want to smell like that. Foo.

This is a very light floral blend on me - pretty but almost so light that nothing stands out. I am more of a dark heavy note gal, I suppose.

This is a musky cedar on me...I wore it the first time last fall on a day when we went walking through the woods and I remember thinking that Doc smelled much like the pine needles that carpeted the path we were wandering. It was a wonderful connection in my mind...

Doc is almost too masculine for me...it teeters on the fence. On my husband, he fits like a glove.

Mmm. I was so frightened by the possibility of the jasmine sambac in this blend that I almost didn't try it, despite the temptations of musk and Earl Gray and vanilla and :swoon:

I am so glad that I gave this a shot, because this is one of those blends where the jasmine just ads depth and character and does not really overwhelm. Instead, I get mostly thick milky sweet tee, thined by a sophistocated musky floral note that makes this gender neutral, not overtly and perfect for my personal taste.

This isquite like taking a bath in hot cocoa - it has a lovely rich cocoa scent - rich, but not overwhelmingly strong. The bomb gets a nice good fizz going to the point of a few actual bubbles in the bath for a little bit there, and the water is nice a soft. It is cocoa colored, to be sure. There seems to be a wee hint of something else as well - cirtus, mint - maybe it's the citric acid and the witch hazel - but it deepens this into something other than just pure chocolate. A surprise hit for me.

Mmmm - fresh apple, with a spicy vanilla Snake Oil bite. This is just luscious.

I love all of the notes in this, but somehow, all together in this one blend, this is just too much of a good thing - SSViper is too spicy sweet - almost syrupy - on my skin and I just can't wear him. So sad.

Immortelle, lily of the valley, gaiac, amber, honey, white sandalwood, almond flower, blonde musk, and hyssop.

There is a lot in this blend for me to love - lily, almond flower, light musk, honey, sandalwood - and this is a very pretty, very sophistocated scent. But something, I am going to guess the combination of the amber, blonde musk, and the florals, reads overly feminine, with an unmistakable "perfume/floral" sort of note. This gets overpowering on me after awhile, sadly - too much of a good thing, perhaps.

A vert light pretty scent - I'm not really getting much that is specifically JASMINE in this - mostly this just smells like a light floral asian tea scent - like sweet jasmine tea perhaps, but not like jasmine flowers.

Mmm. Happy fruit - very cheerful, joyful, perhaps fleeting? The champagne gives it a sparkling feel, the verbena a bit of savoriness to ground it - perhaps there is a future to this infatuation. But mostly, this is the whirlwind joy of early lust.

Wow. This is a spot on complex exotic truffle, with the spices, the rich fruit meats, everything right there, so close I can almost taste them. I want Beth to team with Vsoges and make paired truffles and perfumes next October.

I like this a lot and am happy to have scored a decant of this.

Mmmm...I am so so happy to have located an imp of this, which is beautifully aged and works wonderfully with my Gemini chemistry.

The mint and citrus are definitely present in this, but mostly, this is a warm, spicy herbal scent - with a watery sensibility, but not an aquatic scent - Shollin mentioned tea - this definitely makes me think of a very nice spicy herbal tea.

I love this and so wish there were more about...

This is a very pretty blend - sweet, spicy, almost cloying. I don't get anything obviously floral out of this, but instead what I would characterize with my chemistry as an almost too close to sweaty skin musk. Intersting, but not quite what I'm looking for.

Are the oils safe to put straight on to the skin then?

BPAL oils are skin safe for the general population, and are designed to be worn as perfumes - i.e., on the skin. Obviously, if you have any particular sensitivities, you should show additional caution in selecting the oils you apply, and the allergies and skin reactions topic may be helpful in that regard.

Okay, I love every note in this except for the nb jasmine, which usually is a total deal breaker for me. As in, I put it on my skin and immediately have to scrub for several minutes to stave off the migraine sort of deal breaker.

But no so in Uruk. Uruk is a sweet dark fruity almond cake, with honeyed incense and the jasmine must be just a whiff, because it doesn't effect me in the slightest, but just seems to add to the overall savory-sweet of this blend.

Bottle list. Stat.

Sweet, herby, definite smoke and earth, but not overwhelming - it is a sweet, herbal smoke and earth, to be sure. Jezirat Al Tennyn is a mysterious isle, that's for sure. If someone forced me to guess, I might guess at a hint of Dragon's Blood in here, but I certainly wouldn't swear to it, and I don't get any of the menthol that other people smelled.

I am finding it very hard to describe this, but I do like it.