Blood onmy hands

My first thought was that this is another one of those scents that reminds me of a candle shop. All of those overwhelming candle scents mingling together. It also smelled kind of perfumey. So I'll wait until it has some time to drydown and hope that it gets a lot better. 15 minutes later it has softened down a lot and I can sniff my wrist without my brain aching. I am starting to get that apple scent that others have mentioned. And I can definitely see the comparisons to Hamadryad. In conclusion (before I washed it off well into the first hour)... this is just way way way too much floral for me. Perfumey floral. I had hoped that it would have more woods and pine, but it's like a stronger version of Hamadryad on me.

I wasn't going to order Miskatonic University at all. I'm not really fond of the scent of coffee, and figured that this would make my stomach turn. Still, I ended up buying the entire Springtime in Arkham series in a moment of obsession. This might be my favorite out of the series so far. It doesn't smell like the bitter cheap coffee that I remember my mother and father drinking from my childhood. Not at all. It smells like those yummy coffee shops that I sometimes drop into to pick up a cappuccino. Creamy coffee shot with caramel and a sprinkle of cinnamon. This never smells boozy on me (thankfully) but I do get a definite sort of library smell out of this after about a half hour. Like sipping a wonderful coffee in the middle of a fancy and elegant library. I can practically envision the books and polished oak. It's truly an amazing fragrance. I'm glad to have a bottle.

When I finally got my bottle of 13 today I tore open the lab package in the middle of our driveway and did a happy dance. I've been so excited to try this one <3. I love white chocolate, tangerine, and mandarin... and they're all so rarely used in any fragrances that I've found. So far I haven't really fallen in love with any of the LEs that I have (at least not in a sense that I long to wear them and feel like I would cry if I ran out of them). But 13 is everything that I expected it to be and I am definitely IN LOVE. It's gorgeous and wonderfully unique. In the bottle this smells like melted chocolate. A mixture of white and milk chocolate though. On me it shows up as white chocolate and chocolate orange (mmm... two of my favorites). The citrus isn't really sharp or bad as it usually is on me, it is definitely a candied better-than-orange type of citrus. For a while this hits a stage that I am sort of eh about. It gets more floral in it. But this stage is short lived before it goes back to smelling like white chocolate, only now with a hint of tea. It's so unbelievably good. Everything about this is creamy and sweet. It makes me think of the colour white. Oddly, like how I want my wedding to be like. White, sunny, sweet, and elegant. This scent makes me feel happy. I'll definitely be purchasing another bottle when it comes around again.

I *hate* Egyptian musk and jasmine tends to not work on me... so I didn't try this on with high hopes or expectations. Still, I slathered some onto my wrist. Surprisingly, this actually smells like light jasmine and almonds. Then it turns into an even softer floral... jasmine and cherry blossoms maybe. Half hour in. This isn't nearly as overpowering or horrible as I thought that it would be. The jasmine is staying soft and grounded in the background, making this a very light and pretty floral. Unfortunately, florals just aren't my thing so I can't see myself ever wearing this. And then an hour later the jasmine goes insane . It turned suddenly into that sharp smoky note that I hate and it just keeps getting stronger. I'm going to have to wash it off before I get a headache.

I fully agree with those who have said that Brimstone smells like a forest fire that has just been rained on. It smells exactly like ash that has been cooled down, beaten, and subdued by a fresh rain. It's surprisingly cool and gloomy. I get a minty (spearmint?) note to it that might account for the cool/rain scent in this. Very interesting. I like the images and memories that this brings back for me, in a sort of haunting and horrible way. I'm not sure that I'd ever wear this though. Maybe it would work better on a male.

Mmm... pepper... I do love the smell of pepper. And for about fifteen minutes, Kweku Anansi is all wonderful spicy pepper and a dry woods scent. Little by little a slightly more green/grassy scent comes out. A half hour later I am getting nothing but thyme. Then a bit of citrus (almost lemony in smell). I miss the pepper. This only lasts about 2 hours on me and ends up being a surprisingly light fragrance. I'm not in love with it as I was when I first put it on, it turned too lemon-citrus on my skin for some reason.

Eclipse is one of those scents that I can't trust at all. Sometimes it's great and I get a well blended bottle or imp that smells like warm cinnamon sweetened by the vanilla and vanilla-ish heliotrope. And sometimes I get a bottle or imp that smells like nothing but bpal's awful almond note (which doesn't smell nutty at all, but like sickly sweet maraschino cherries). These huge variations are one of the reasons I've been avoiding buying bpal lately... I can't stand not knowing what I'm going to get when I reorder a scent.

Sloth was one of my favorites when I first got into bpal, but the current version uses different components and it doesn't smell the same at all. Originally, it was heavy on the myrrh and had lots of good, resinous, thick sweetness to it. A really beautiful myrrh note. The drydown had a pleasant, peppery woods to it. Now Sloth is mostly vetiver, and it's that charred bbq vetiver variety that I hate. Smells like mesquite bbq sauce and bbq smoke. Still a woody, peppery feel in the drydown. Also something that smells like alcohol/nailpolish remover that never burns off. Like most of my favorite bpals, the 2005 versions are nothing like the 2012+ versions. I find the 2015 version of Sloth to just be.. horrible and unwearable. I wish that the Lab would just discontinue fragrances when they become this different or the components go bad.

Muse is one of those scents that I like, but would never really get around to wearing. It's too floral for my tastes (though it is a surprisingly refreshing and zingy floral, thanks to the citrus). But I love the mixture of lime and jasmine... it's rather unique and brings out new sides to jasmine that I didn't know existed, lol. And the lime works to keep the jasmine grounded, so it isn't headache inducing on me. Still, jasmine is definitely the dominant note on me. I just can't seem to fall in love with Muse, it just inspires minor admiration and like from me.

I'm not really certain why I placed an order for an imp of this. Voodoo blends don't really work on me at all. No, I do know why I ordered it. Because "French Love" is a cute name. Cute names always get me into trouble. Got my imp in the mail and read the reviews for this... oh no, not Dragon's Blood . Dragon's Blood and I so hate each other. Still, I tried it on. It's nowhere near as bad as I had feared. At first this smells sort of soapy... like sweet bubble bath suds. Floral bubble bath. In the drydown, this becomes surprisingly pleasant. It smells light and sugary. Kind of like cotton candy with a hint of vanilla. Still, that floral dragon's blood-ish note is giving me a headache. *sigh* This goes through stages on me too... one minute I have that sweet sugary note that I love... then the next it's all dragon's blood. All faded away after an hour. I'm not crazy about this and wouldn't purchase again, but I don't hate it and want to throw it out the window either. That's a step up from my usual experience with dragon's blood

Saint-Germain didn't smell anything like I would have expected given the description. At first it smelled delicious, like spicy pepper and dry woods. It was oddly familiar. This stage didn't last long enough for me to figure out what it reminds me of though. Then, over the next few minutes, the spiciness slowly drifted away and became powdery. I can't stand it when lovely things go the route of baby powder on my skin. An hour later, I'm sniffing my wrist and cannot detect anything. Like most scents that go powdery on me, this one (thankfully) did not last that long. I'm almost tempted to reapply for how lovely it started out though.

Kingsport isn't the sort of scent that I normally wear or enjoy, but it is lovely nonetheless. I love the smell of salt, so I definitely appreciate the salty water scent that it has. It reminds me of standing on the deck of a cruise ship before a storm. Salty water swirling around and the incoming storm adding that wet dark feeling to it all. I like it. It's a great aquatic oceany scent... but manages to feel very dark and foreboding at the same time as it feels clean and refreshing.

I liked this back in 2005, but it smells really different in its new variations (nothing I tried from bpal a couple years ago actually smells the same today.. I guess the notes vary a lot when they reorder them). Forbidden Fruit in 2005 was creamy flowers, warm and powdery amber, bubblegummy lotus and a whiff of cheery citrus. My 2012 imp of this smells like sickly sweet, watery, fruity-floral (almost like aquatic, grapes and white florals) and tons of baby powder. Bleh.

I was excited to try Kitsune-Tsuki... even though jasmine and white musk usually give me splitting headaches. Still, I had to try it because daffodils are my favorite flowers and the only flowers that I really love the smell of. Wet on my wrist, this smells rather like Midwinter's Eve. That lovely plummy scent that I adore. Fifteen minutes later... umm... still plums. Florals? Musk? Nope, not yet. An hour later. I think there might be some musk creeping back there behind those plums. Or maybe not. Three hours. Yeah, no musk. Definitely do daffodils either. Damn it. This is like a slightly less sugary version of Midwinter's Eve on me (which is gorgeous, but I hardly ever wear Midwinter's Eve and I've had a bottle of it for months, in general I just don't wear a lot of fruity blends). I so wanted some of those daffodils. This will probably end up in my swap/sale pile. Pretty, but not me... and I'm disappointed in the lack of daffodils.

When I first slathered on some Red Devil, I smelled like very yummy red cherry candies. Hard candies. Sweet and edgy. That faded into the background and I started to smell a blend of pepper and cinnamon. The cinnamon wasn't as strong as it normally is on my skin though. And it was all muted by a strange, but good, floral smell. I thought that it was rather pretty at this point. Then it turned into pure headache-inducing jasmine on me. Smoky and overwhelming. I had to wash it off as the beginnings of a migraine came over me. Sadly, this is just another Voodoo Blend that didn't work for me... so far my only success in this category has been with Follow Me Boy. Oh well, up for swaps this goes.

I've wanted to try Roadhouse for quite a while now just because it sounded so interesting and unlike any of the other fragrances. Plus, I *love* the green/bitter scent of dandelions. Unfortunately, as I had feared, the 'booze' smell in this is ruining it for me. For the most part is does smell like bitter dandelions, but every once in a while this stale alcohol scent creeps up that really turns my stomach. It reminds me of a party that I went to once where some idiot spilled his beer down the front of my shirt. I was sticky, unhappy, and smelled awful the entire night. And that is the sort of memory that Roadhouse is conjuring up for me . I'm not getting any tobacco out of this... I have a hard time picking out the smell of tobacco in any of the blends that I've tried though, so it might just be me. I wanted to try Roadhouse for the novelty of it, and I'm quite glad that I did... this just isn't something that I could ever wear, really. It's not 'me' and the boozy lingering note in the background is turning me off.

Mmm... I love apricots. They always smell very warm and friendly to me (weird? perhaps). Grand Guignol smells just like the juicy fuzzy fruits on my skin. Like I took a ripe apricot and squeezed it over my wrist. It's very sweet and simple. I don't normally like or want to wear fruity scents, but I am definitely fond of this one. It doesn't smell boozy or brandy-ish on me at all either, so I'm thankful for that. Lasting power on me was decent as well. I wore it for 6 hours before taking a bath and could still smell it wafting up from my wrist. If I magically run into some extra cash, I'll be getting a full size bottle, lol. In the meantime... I will provide a loving and appreciative home for my imp

Tezcatlipoca was one of the very first fragrances that intrigued me on my first venture to the BPAL website. I read the description and fell instantly in lust. I knew in my heart that I would fall in love with it... but I still only got an imp of it. How stupid of me >_<. I can't even begin to explain how perfectly gorgeous and amazing this is. It's so good that I am at a loss to explain it. I could never do it justice. I was most excited about a blend of cocoa and patchouli (two favorites of mine)... and a little worried that the florals in this would 'mess it up' somehow. They don't mess it up at all. It's a perfect blend of every note. There's not too much cocoa, not too much patchouli, not too much leather, and not too much floral. Nothing overpowers anything else. They just meld into one glorious smooth scent. If I had to say this is anything, I would say that it is earthy incense (but not in that smoky harsh way that makes me ill, and it has a rich sweetness from the cocoa). Elegant and earthy. This would probably be excellent on my boyfriend, but I'm definitely not sharing to find out, lol. Tezcatlipoca is a 10 ml purchase in my next BPAL order.

Elegba is sugary sweet. The kind of sweet that makes me feel like I'm getting cavities just from sniffing it, lol. I don't ever smell any coconut from this blend... perhaps a hint of sweet tobacco in the background. It also isn't as boozy as I thought it would be (Grog smelled more alcoholic on me). It fades pretty fast (lasted about 2 hours on me) but it is crazy sugared sweetness while it lasts. Has a smooth buttery quality from the rum. In its final stage, it smells just like I pasted sugar water onto my skin. I like Elegba a lot, but I don't know that I'd ever buy a full size bottle of it. I love foodie scents, so I already have a lot of sweet/sugary fragrances. And I love a lot of them a lot more than I like Elegba... so I wouldn't wear this one enough to justify a full bottle purchase.

I was enchanted with Eden at first sniff. I expected this to be a foodie scent... with sweet coconut and honey. It's not foodie on me at all, but it's something much much better. At first it is just wonderful green leaves. It reminds me of climbing trees in the summer. How you can crush a handful of plump healthy leaves and they will leave a wet sappy mark on your hands. Eden smells of that vibrant green sap. After about fifteen minutes the toasted coconut comes into play. It smells like I've sprinkled coconut over some leaves and mixed them together. It still isn't tropical or foodie smelling on me though. It's surprisingly fresh and vibrant. An hour later the green leaves are fading (though they are still very much present) and a milky almond note is coming out more. The fragrance is still very soft and clean. It's not too sweet or foodie at all, for those who were worried about that. It's an amazing light fragrance that makes me think of summer. It lasts for a good four hours on me, the fig never really comes out and the honey makes a brief/light appearance at the end. In conclusion, I regret not buying a 5 ml of Eden... but there's always my next order.

I had the same problem with Persephone that a few others had... the rose completely devours the pomegranate. This is also the type of rose that I'm not fond of. A sort of light soapy rose. For a while it had a burnt of plasticy undertone that was making me sick. All in all, Persephone gives me a soapy-floral headache...

I was excited to try this because of the description of smelling like dried leaves and oak. I thought that it would be a lovely 'forest in fall' type of scent. When I first applied this, it was disappointingly awful. Sharply perfumey and bitter. The aquatic note is all I can smell and it is biting... the kind of bad taste in my mouth sensation that I get from biting into an orange peel. I kept waiting for it to get softer or more woodsy. However, I stupidly overlooked the 'white lilies' part of this description. This fragrance reminded me exactly why I usually run away from white florals. They go very perfumey/soapy and sharp on my skin. The woods never came out over my skin amping up the white florals. Sadly, this went from bad-aquatic to bad-floral on my skin...

Add me to the already long list of Dorian fans. I was worried that this wouldn't work on me, since I usually get headaches from musk... but oooh this is so lovely. I don't get any lemon or citrus from this. Soft sugared tea and vanilla musk... very warm and sensual. I love this and the boy loves this on me. It feels like a very romantic fragrance to me.

Just yesterday I was hanging out with my mom and she mentioned how much she loved the smell of butterscotch (she was admiring a new lotion of mine) and I was wishing that I knew of a perfume that I could get her with a similar scent. This isn't a pure butterscotch on me, of course, with the boozy rum in certain stages... but it is mostly a warm golden silky butterscotch scent. My mother is now absolutely fawning over the imp

Wow, this fragrance is really overpowering on me. Giving me that beat up nosebleed feeling. First off I do get a grapefruit smell. But it's not like nice juicy grapefruit insides... it's like slightly hardened angry grapefruit rind. Very sharp. I also get an odd/sweet incense smell in the background. After about a half hour, I have angry grapefruit rind and salt. Not saltwater... it's like I stuck my head into a bag of salt and snorted some up my nose. Sniffing this leaves me feeling lightheaded and wounded. It's... interesting...