Blood onmy hands

I knew that the Three Gorgons would smell awful on me. I'm not fond of BPAL's tobacco fragrances and I can't wear Egyptian Amber at all (it smells like lemony, BO-infused baby powder). On me... nasty, soiled baby powder and a blur of sharp citrus notes. In the drydown I'm getting the golden sweetness of tobacco (which is a smell that I kinda like, but don't want to smell like or sniff for too long) mingling with hints of a smoky, earthy vetiver. Lighter than I was expecting, but just as bad as I was expecting. This isn't a smell that I would ever warm up to, even if it were on someone else. Something about the tobacco, amber, and vetiver is just a very dirty smelling combination to me.

I love the lab's Lily of the Valley. It smells like a real bouquet of creamy, fresh flowers and green stems to me. Unfortunately, Calla Lily goes intensely soapy and perfumey on my skin. Together they're like a mix of lovely, fresh, soft lilies and sharply perfumed dryer sheets. For about an hour on me this is a very strong floral blend, and a bit too sharp and soapy for my tastes. Then this softens to a lighter and more powdery floral with hints of spice behind it. I like gently spiced, darker themed lilies, but the soapy Calla in this blend is too strong on my skin.

The Ecstasy of St. Theresa is hellish when mixed with my skin chemistry. I get powder and soapy floral; not even the frankincense can save this blend for me . I love the lab’s chamomile and frankincense, but this doesn’t work with my skin chemistry at all. I’m just getting perfumey baby powder and a hint of something herbal & soapy. It reminds me of something like a grandmotherly, sharp, floral dusting powder mixed with baby powder, with some nice hotel soap thrown in. In the drydown, some of the sharpness and heaviness fades away and I’m left with a sweet, light powder. Still… floral-esque powder. I strongly dislike powdery scents, so this isn’t working for me at all. I ended up trying to wash this one off after about a half hour. I just couldn’t take this much powder and cliché, fake floral-smell. ETA 2016 frimp review: First on, I'm getting a big blast of golden, dry, herbal chamomile, slightly sour and medicinal. Dry, golden herbs over a big, baby powdery amber with hints of golden frankincense and creamy, soapy white florals. In the drydown, the sour qualities and soapiness fade, and The Ecstacy settles into a church-y, sweet, smoky frankincense with bold, waxy, creamy white floral and just a hint of amber powder. Very much a church fragrance, which is pretty cool. I think that this, out of all of the bpals ever, is most evocative of a church as it dries down.

The Arrival at the Sabbath & Homage to the Devil is a lovely caramel-sandalwood blend. The caramel is sweet, warm, and buttery-soft. The sandalwood just adds a sort of calming, grounding element to the caramel that also helps to balance out its sweetness. Every once in a while, a sharp floral note pokes its head in to muck things up, but the floral fades in and out. So far, I think that this blend and the Cloister Graveyard are the only Salon members that I truly enjoy and would find myself wearing a lot, with Chickens being a once in a while wear. I would love this one a lot more without the floral notes, but they're tolerable and fade out most of the time. Beautifully soft caramel-sandalwood when the florals aren't trying to edge their way in. I'll definitely be keeping my bottle of this one. ETA: Perhaps I lied when I said I'd keep my bottle. The more I've tried to wear this, the more the sharp floral notes are annoyingly present. I want to enjoy the lovely caramel and the beautiful sandalwood, but the sharp floral seems so out of place and distracting. I wanted this to be my perfect caramel blend, so I let that cloud my first judgment... in reality, this is too much sharp flower oddly paired with the gourmand aspects. Weird and rather unpleasant. ETA: 2016 Frimp. No caramel or vanilla at all anymore. Sour, sharp, nondescript floral and a really unpleasant, ashy, dry patchouli (and I usually love patch and black patch) with generic soapiness. Carnation comes in soapy and strange, like spices, shaving cream and dried out flowers that someone set on fire. Nope. Scrubber.

Even though the whole incest thing was a bit of a turnoff, I felt that I had to have a bottle of this blend. I love black patchouli and skin musk, and I'm definitely a little more than fond of incense, saffron, myrrh, and tangerine. The other notes are okay. I had high hopes for this one working on my skin chemistry. In the bottle, I can smell the dark, earthy patchouli underneath a seductive musk and tart, sweet lemon. It's almost like sexy lemonhead candies wearing leather and rolling around in some black soil (black patchouli has an almost leathery soil quality to me that I lurve). On me... I sometimes have trouble wearing citrus scents, but this is like candied citrus peels and a citrus creme. Perhaps the musk is giving it that sweet, creamy smell. It's really not at all as dark as I was expecting it to be; it's moreso a bright and cheery sort of scent. The patchouli doesn't survive at all on my skin, though a sweet and smoky incense blend makes its presence more known in the drydown, along with something that smells kinda like grape candies. For the most part, Lot & His Daughters is a sweet citrus blend with smoky wafts of a sweet incense and candied grapes. It's better in the bottle than it is on my skin. I like this, but I'm not sure that I'd actually wear it or if I'll be keeping my bottle...

A monstrous, brutal, and bloodthirsty blend: blackened myrrh, crushed olive leaf, black musk, spikenard, frankincense, cypress wood, opoponax, white ginger, and patchouli. In the bottle and on my skin, this does smell like a very dark and ominous sort of blend. It has a charred, blackened smell to it like slightly burned wood and burnt resins. There's an overwhelming sweetness here that's making me a bit sick too. In the drydown... I recognize this blend. This smells a lot like Haloa on me. Actually, if someone had dabbed Lycaon on me, I would have said it was Haloa without much hesitation. It's very sweet, but with a soured edge and some woody-resin notes. After a half hour or so, this smells *exactly* like Haloa does on my skin. I guess they do have quite a few notes in common... still kinda disappointing though.

In the bottle, this is like smelling a grassy yard with tons of amped up, tart, sweet-ish florals. A swirl of sweet, clean floral notes, an herbal something that makes me think of dandelion, and a crisp and almost citrussy sort of grass note. This is a blend that I can sniff and actually pick out pretty much every note (except a couple of the specific flowers) from the medley. A tiny dab on my skin (this has a lot of staying power and throw on me) and this blooms into a garden of sweet flowers, dandelions, and an herbal greenery. The grass and ivy are lightly in the background, lending just enough of an authentic ‘green’ smell to the fragrance. It’s a sweet floral that isn’t going at all sharp or generic on my skin. It smells much like what I would imagine the place in the painting smelling of. Not a haughty and overly tended flower garden, this one has herbs and a few weedy dandelions creeping in - but it’s a healthy and sunny sort of garden nonetheless. The perfect playground for a couple o’ chickens. I normally hate floral blends, and I genuinely like this. The flowers are verrry sweet (almost sweet tart-esque after an hour) and the wee hint of herbs and greenery along the edges make this one unique. It's really strong though, so I'll have to be careful never to overapply or the florals would still give me a headache. And I would love a bottle of Enraged Chicken Musk

Blends with ylang ylang in them often end up smelling metallic on me, but that might just be a strange skin chemistry issue, lol.

The Lantern Ghost clings very close to my skin and disappears quickly, itself ghost-like in its fading and thinness. The fragrance is a crisp tea and cool mint with the light, clean, sweet touch of cherry blossom. Very white, but with a softness and sweetness that make it bearable for me. In the drydown, the lily comes in and goes a bit soapy. The Lantern Ghost makes me think of sitting underneath a tree with a snowing flurry of blossom petals falling down, inhaling the sweet aroma of mint tea. It’s not a very me scent and it completely disappears within a half hour, but it’s still very pretty. I like the mental images that this one paints. I actually might use up the rest of my decant in my oil burner

Life everlasting is just a flowering herbal plant-thing as far as I know, lol. It's supposed to have a light smell, and I think that someone once told me that it smelled like chamomile. I don't know a lot about plants though, so I'll leave it at that. Les Anges Déchus is definitely an earthy, masculine scent on me. It has a strong leather note dominating the blend, so I couldn't wear it myself, but I might like this on some of my male friends. Black leather, crisp moss, and some foresty notes. Rather earthy and dark, but with a sweet warmth to it that might be the tobacco. I'm not smelling any currant that I can pick out. I will probably give my decant of this to a male friend. I don't love it enough to give it to my boyfriend, but it's a nice man-scent if you like leather and earth notes.

Melancholia is a crazy-strong floral to my nose. Pefumey, sharp, classic-perfume sort of floral where I can't pick out any one note, but it's giving me a headache and I keep thinking "fake flowers." Ylang ylang is one of my personal fragrance enemies; it smells really sharp and metallic/chemical-esque on me (sort of like a cheap hairspray smell). That sharpness is dominating this fragrance for me in the drydown. This is an unpleasant mish-mash of sharp, heavy florals. I'd recommend it for people who like heavy department store floral blends where you can still smell the sharpness of the alcohol even in the drydown. Unfortunately, this is way too strong and sharp for me, and ends up giving me a vicious headache. It took me a half hour to scrub it off.

First on, The Cup of Death is rather herbal and astringent on me. There’s strong, herbal lavender at the forefront, paired with an acrid floral note. Thankfully this sweetens up after a few minutes on my skin (yay) as a fruity floral fragrance creeps in. The florals are a bit soapy on me, but not overwhelmingly so. The overall impression is a clean, sweet, juicy floral paired with some greener, earthy something. The grounding sandalwood lingers attractively in the background. Overall, this is a decent floral blend. I would sum it up as juicy, clean florals with hints of herbal greenery and dry sandalwood. Probably not something that I would ever wear, but still pretty when I get past the sharp opening stage.

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun (woo - longest name ever?) would be fantastic on someone with better skin chemistry than I. The florals or something in this go a tad bit soapy and some of the notes (hello amber) go powdery on my skin. But I really do love the vanilla and sandalwood combo in this one, and I'm loving the overall spicy woods fragrance. It's sort of a woodsy oriental to me with spicy woods and a sweet vanilla at the heart of it. If something in this weren't giving the Dragon-Woman-Clothed-Sun an undercurrent of dish soap, I might love it. I'm actually fond of the lab's sweet pea, so I'm not sure if that's what is mucking this one up for me. If you like woodsy scents (or even if you don't like woods, this is mixed with a lovely vanilla and some sweet florals) and your skin does well with the amber and floral notes, this is a really great blend. As it is, my skin is picking up a little too much powder and soap and ruining this one for me

This reminds me of Les Bijoux, which makes sense when looking at the similar notes they share in common. Cupid Complaining to Venus is like a darker and slightly more perfumey version on my skin. The goldeny sweet, clean apple blossom is at the forefront of the fragrance. At first it’s a sweet fruity-floral blend. The apple blossom, peach, and honey all play nicely and remind me strongly of Les Bijoux. In the drydown, the woody fig and warm, slightly spice sandalwood come in to shake things up. The green herbal smack from the thyme comes in with a vengeance after 15 minutes or so of wear. It’s very strong and herbal on my skin for about a half hour and then seems to disappear. Cupid Complaining to Venus is pretty… but I like the initial stage more than the herbal/woody drydown that it is on me… Les Bijoux is like a longer lasting version of the best part of this for me, so I’ll be content with my 10 ml of that one.

I was expecting something light, clean, and sweet from this one… but it’s rather sharp and heavy to me at first. Very sharp, perfumey floral notes with a soapy undertone. I thought that the honey and sugar would sweeten this up, but I'm not smelling any honey or sugar. Hyper florals with a dish soap drydown, and it all smells very white and cutting on me. My skin chemistry hasn't agreed with many of the Asian themed blends, so I guess I'm not too surprised. After an hour or so of wear, this is just a light hint of soap on my skin with a slight tinge of sweetness. I like this barely here stage more than the aggressive opening stage, but I don't think I'll be holding on to this one or wearing it again.

He-Goat is very masculine, earthy, and dark. I was afraid of the pomegranate, but I don’t smell any fruity notes here. Unfortunately, the Egyptian Amber is awful on me and dominates in the drydown… I get a strangely soiled baby powder smell underneath the earthy vetiver and patchouli. It’s too masculine and dark for me to pull off, and the amber notes are hateful on my skin . In the end, I actually found myself wishing that I did smell the pomegranate in here somewhere. I wanted this to work on me, if only because sarada's review is so beautiful, but this is too dark and powdery on my skin.

Much thanks to my imp pimp for the chance to try this one . First on... this smells very watery and fruity to me, sort of like honeydew and orange slices lite. It reminds me kinda of the watery musk that's in blends like Silence, but with more of a fruity sweetness and zesty citrus edge. In the drydown, the fruitiness falls to the background and this gets a lil more spicy (kinda reminding me of cookies) and more floral (juicy floral? orchids?). It still has that creamy, watery smell to it as well. Definitely interesting and rather pretty. Cookies, orchids, fruit, and watery musk? It actually makes me think of Storyville and the way that one behaved on my skin (spicy foodie and watery notes - but this one is lighter and more clean/floral on my skin). I only managed to get a drop of this, so I didn't get to slather and try it out several times like I normally do for my reviews. I hope that some day I can get more of this one and we actually find out what notes are in it

Wolf Moon '06 desperately wants to either be baby powder or musky men’s cologne on my skin, but is worse than either of those things. The orris and amber do their thing, going intensely dry and powdery the second that they touch my skin. The black musk lingers in the background, smelling cold and sharply perfumey. I had hoped that the pine and winter air would save this for me… but no such luck. Powdery, cheap men’s cologne (and something almost spicy?). In the drydown, some of the juniper berry comes out and this reminds me a lot of The Salon’s The Isle of the Dead (which I also dislike). I wish that this were sweet and piney on me as other reviewers have described. Wolf Moon is dry, sharply perfumey, and unpleasantly herbal-sweet on my skin. I’ll be giving away my decant and hoping that my bottle of Lycaon likes me more.

Much love and thanks to PilotKitten for gifting me with a decant of this one . It's the only new Yule that I haven't tried, and so far none of them have really worked on my skin. In the bottle... smells like earthy, sharp juniper and undertones of fruit punch. On me... smoky, sharp juniper and sugary tropical fruit punch. As it dries down, it begins to take on a medicinal/menthol note that makes me think of Vaporub. Tropical fruit punch and vaporub, with the menthol getting stronger and stronger over time. While this isn't awful, it's not something that I'd ever wear as a perfume. Very pungent and heavy on the menthol. Maybe I'll keep my imp around for days when I'm having sinus troubles.

Chaos Theory: LXVIII I got a bottle of this one on ebay (it was supposed to be a "never even opened before" bottle, but I now see that andrabell has reviewed it before me. oh well). In the bottle it smells wonderfully creamy and sensual. On me at first, it reminds me a lot of LUSH's Sultana of Soap scent that I *love*. Lots of creamy tonka and vanilla and hints of something tart & fruity. Sweet, but not overly so. The tart notes give this a bit more of a bite, and there's something lingering in here that makes it unbelievably sexy. Tonka, vanilla, sexy skin musk, and a pinch of citrus or tart berries. That's what I imagine to be in here. It starts off great, but as it continues to dry down, it turns to plastic. Previously reviewed by andrabell.

CTIII: MCCCXIII Yummy. This smells lemony, but it isn't as sharp or acrid as lemon scents usually are on me. This is more tangy and smooth, like lemon sorbet. Almost creamy and sweet, a bit reminiscent of Snow Angel. A light and pretty lemon dessert.

CTIII: DCLXIV This is a strange one. In the vial and on my skin, it has a warm and dry chocolate note that reminds me of brownies. A baked, cakey chocolate. Underneath that, though, is a soapy/herbal something that reminds me of some of the TALs or Voodoo blends. The soapy, green, herbal-ness gets stronger over time and is rather odd and unappealing when paired with the sweet chocolate smell. Previously reviewed by PilotKitten.

CTIII: DCLXII This is a really lovely, creamy floral and fruit blend. It has something of the smell of milky flower petals (creamy lilies or Snow White-esque florals?) mixed with a juicy, sweet plum. Almost like the frutiness from Midwinter's Eve has been paired with the florals and milkiness of Snow White. Beautiful. Previously reviewed by PilotKitten.

In the bottle, tart blackberries with an earthy, almost root-like smell that reminds me of strolling through blackberry patches. It's a smell that I know and love well since I grew up in the Ozarks. It's the smell of an entire patch of blackberries rather than the juice of one berry. I was really hopeful that this would work on me. Most of BPAL's lunars haven't been wearable for me, and I haven't had a *love* since Sleepy Moon from February. I was hopeful for this one since I love everything in it with the exception of the poppy and sage. Of course, my skin amps up the poppy and completely ruins this for me . Poppy has ruined a few blends for me now (gives me nosebleeds and migraines). It's a sharp, stinging, smoky, white sort of smell on me. The beautifully tart blackberry is holding on, but it's smothered by the migraine inducing poppy for me. I waited this one out for an hour and a half (I so wanted to love it) and the poppy does finally calm down, and some creamy/vanilla-ish tonka comes out to mingle with the berries. The lingering sharpness of the poppy just kills this for me though. Bitter Moon minus the florals would be heaven. As it is... I can't wear Bitter Moon at all. So disappointed in this order

In the bottle... very floral. It does bring to mind a very deep, rich purple. These are very haughty, strong florals with a hint of soap creeping underneath them. I was afraid to try this on my skin. The second that I tried this on, I sniffed my wrists and said, "Nuh-uh." This is very much a not-for-Tania blend. When I go to try on perfumes at department stores, the florals all take on the same smell to me. A sharp, acrid, chemical, 'perfume' smell rather than the actual smell of flowers. That's what Purple Phoenix does on me. This isn't even as pretty or purple on me as it is in the bottle. It's just sharp and unpleasant florals. Almost metallic and chemical-smelling like cheap hairspray. I don't get any fruits or resin or anything but chemical, cheap florals. Purple Phoenix is awful on me