mparker

Wonderful! This starts out thick, the notes hard to distinguish. It somehow smells metallic without having the sharp "department store perfume" ozone smell most of the metallics have to my nose, which, to my delight, all three of these Phoenixes I've tried have all managed. It's a dark, subdued metallic here, more the color of metal than the shine. The first note I can pick out wet, and it stays vibrant all through the life of the scent, and that's the clove. It's almost christmas-candy clove, slightly sugar-dusted, and light in character (not in potency), but the other notes keep it from feeling candylike once they appear. It doesn't hit me as strong or as spicy as BPAL clove usually does. As the scent settles in I get the ginger, and again it's not as spicy or as strong as I usually get from BPAL, this is more like fresh ginger juice than spicy powdered ginger. It's a lot less "funky" lab-fresh than the red ginger in Saw Scaled Viper, so it doesn't need aging time to calm down. As it dries down, more of the scents come in, now the basil is recognizable. Basil is an odd scent and to me can, in addition to its herbally green quality, have just a tinge of an almost licorice-herb like note, a deep, dark, earthy very round scent, and it really helps give this blend weight. I think that most of the metallic sense I get from this is from the dark basil and the dragon's blood. After a while I think I catch flashes of pepper, though to me it smells almost like pink pepper rather than black, possibly because it's elusive and I find pink pepper usually does the peek-a-boo think he black pepper is doing here. I would swear that this one has a hint of skin musk in it. As it fades I catch what smells to me like clean but delightfully flushed skin. This has a lot of foody notes, but to me this isn't foody at all. It's unique and mysterious, but strong and steady. It's resiny and gritty and smooth all at once. Of the three Phoenixes I've tried this anniversary (Copper, Iron and Lead) I think this is the most wearable for my skintype; Copper is stunningly beautiful but fleeting, Lead is gorgeous but maybe too distinctive and heavy for daily wear. Iron is juuuuust right.

I let my boyfriend try this one first and I had trouble keeping myself from gnawing his arm off. It's the most incredible spicy coffeeed cocoa! I didn't notice a whole lot of morphing on this one on either of us. It starts out as a dark, rich cocoa - similar to the cocoa in last Yule's Gelt, but somehow even better. Dry, but full-bodied. The shot of coffee (Just enough to make itself known. Not enough to turn the whole thing into a coffee-scent) eases the dryness some and makes it smell, well, hot. Which the cinnamon helps, too. You couldn't get further from red-hots than this cinnamon. It's closer to those wonderful cinnamon brooms or gourmet cinnamon bark fresh-ground into this cocoa. I think I might get a hint of nutmeg in here, too. It's absolutely delicious and lasts and lasts! We still could identify it on our skin more than 24 hours later. This is THE perfect hot-chocolate, comfort, warming scent. It's the Chocolate King. I think we're going to need to worship a couple more bottles of this. :love!:

This is a major morpher on me. Maybe aging will balance that out some, but it's lovely in it's stages. I have to warn that I'm smelling all sorts of things that aren't actually listed as notes, so I'm not sure if it's "behaving" on me normally. In bottle - Very light, very slight hints of chocolate and a hint of what I would assume was red musk, but overall cool-smelling and not very strong. But it lies!! Wet - Cocoa! Wonderful, delicious cocoa! It's not a soft scent anymore, so it's a good thing I went light on application (I was afraid it would go "perfumy" and give me a headache). This is not a cheap cocoa, it's a lovely, dry, rich cocoa and it's supported by the musk that I can now tell isn't red musk at all. Dry - The chocolate is gone and for a while I'm smelling something champaca or nag champa like. Lightly incensey, but it's still a full, rich, slightly sweet scent. I'm going to assume this is the tobacco, but it's not the way tobacco scents usually smell on me. Extended drydown - Ok...it gets a little odder. The scent is still beautiful. Good staying power. Nicely rich and complex. A slight powderyness has crept in, but it's a complexly scented, pretty powder, so isn't any trouble at all. But for some reason I'm catching the occasional hint of honeysuckle or night-blooming jasmine. I don't know where it's coming from, and it blooms and fades randomly, but it's gorgeous. The musk blooms up now and again, too, and it's like every time I sniff my wrists or the air around me I'm getting something slightly different. I can't really smell the chocolate anymore, but something sweet and delicious, like cocoaed honey peeks up now and again. It starts off delicious, goes through an exotic and sexy period, and finally ends up fragrantly soft and snuggly. I'm sure a heavier application would give me a headache at several points, but a light touch at application kept that from being a problem. It's a lovely scent, one that sniffing the bottle doesn't even begin to hint at. It's very very feminine without being sugary-sweet or overly floral. And now that one of the above reviewers mentions it, I DO get a sense of Snake Oil, too. Not the actual scent, but something sweet and vanillaed and resiny.

I just tried my imp of this last night. I can't recall them now, but I do remember having recollections of very vivid dreams when I woke up this morning. I also got a report from the boyfriend that I was so deeply asleep when he woke up this morning, that I looked flat out dead. In the imp it smelled nice, but I had trouble placing notes. On my skin though, wow! Ginger. Fresh, juicy ginger! It's bright and beautiful, which is odd because I always find myself thinking that ginger oils smell more floral or foody and not like actual fresh ginger, but this - wow! There's a few other things in here too, a hint of lemon or something else citrus, and something fuzzy and slightly sharp in the background that seems to be in most of the sleep scents. It must be lavender, but it's not as strong here. It's really gorgeous, but was already starting to fade when I fell asleep. That or my nose was drifting off.

Wet - pumpkin and the woods in the bottle. And something that I almost had trouble identifying as rose. It's quite understated, for a Pumpkin Patch. Wet - Strong, but not as potent as many of the PPs. I'm getting mostly reserved pumpkin with a light bit of rose. This is a soft, dry rose, not a strong wet one, and I don't have to worry that it's going to overpower everything. The woods are still there, but they aren't as overpowering as I'm used to them being in other scents. The pumpkin seems to balance well with them. The pumpkin is slightly spiced. Not so you can pick out anything, but it has a rich complexity. Very nice. Dry - I find that this swings in predomincance from pumpkin to rose and back, which keeps things interesting. The rose doesn't go overly strong or rise up to give me a headache. It's surprisingly well behaved. But the REAL surprise is that at the end of its life (and it's a fairly long life on my skin, though again, not as strongly so as some other PPs). I start to smell what I would swear is honey! And not just honey, this is very much O - like honey on me, with just a breath of rose and a smear of lingering pumpkin. But, oh, I DO love that drydown stage, even if it is terribly skin-close. LOVE!

TWO REVIEWS IN ONE! WOO!! Male and Female testers. In the bottle: I got strong, rich coffee and pumpkin. Maybe a hint of nuttyness. Very nice! Eye-opening! Yum! Wet on me - Suddenly I get mostly chocolate-hazlenut with only a hint of coffee. I also tried this on the boyfriend and while it goes on just like on me, his application quickly shifts to model airplane glue, while mine stays the same and lovely. Then, his sharp glue/nailpolish remover smell subsides, leaving a scent like mole sauce and fresh hot corn tortillas. I check the bottle to make sure I didn't put Feast of the Greatly Revered ones on him instead. Nope. This is my punkie. Mine is still wonderful dark chocolate-hazlenut coffee. No sign of pumpkin on either of us. Dry: Mine settles more quickly, and the pumpkin rolls in to round everything out and sweeten the blend on me. It stays heavily chocolate-hazlenut, only a bit of pumpkin, and the only hint of the coffee is the darkness of the scent, rather than a real presence. On him it finally settles after quite a long period of smelling like truly awesome Mexican food. Not bad at all, just not really what he'd hoped for. BUT eventually his skin settles down too, and it ends up being a lovely pumpkin latte with a shot of hazelnut syrup. SO - overall, I get a long-lasting deep, nutty chocolate scent, very dark and sweetened by only a hint of pumpkin on my female skin with no coffee to speak of. And my boyfriend gets, after some really odd morphing, a really nice, sweet pumpkin-nut-coffee scent without even a hint of chocolate. Huh. Interesting. But it IS a really great blend for me, and I'm happy to have my bottle.

I was very much looking forward to this, as I adore scents like almond and ammaretto. Bottle - Slightly almondy Wet - Not much of anything. A bit of cherrylike almond on immediate application, but then just a slight sweetness. Dry - I thought I caught a whiff of the sugar-glaze from KrispyKreme donuts for a second, but it was just for a second. If I huff my arm I get a very slight almond note, but overall I'm only getting the lightest suggestion of sugar. I wanted to like this one, I really, really did. I'm sincerely hoping that a bit of aging brings some scent out of this one. I it on about an hour ago and it never really had much presence. The description was entirely appealing, but I'm just not getting any of those notes, or much of anything from this. I'm guessing my skin must eat almond. I am, sadly, going to store this one away for a while and see if it improves. (I suspect I'm going to have to do the same with Suck It as preliminary tests show it as a super light one, too.)

I had an interesting reaction to this one. I'm certain that this blend suffered from "bottle shock" from the shipping process. The first day: I sniffed the bottle, and it was lovely. Just what I had been hoping for. Something with that plummy combination of red musk, patchouli and vanilla that I get from blends like Mme Moriarty and Snake Charmer Ressurected (Yes, those two actually have plum, but I can't think of another way to describe the red musk), but a touch lighter and more feminine. I was afraid of the orchid, but it didn't seem to be overly present. So I tried it out. Wet - It started out lovely. Just what I wanted, rich, thick with spicy musk and sexy. For about three minutes. Then the orchid amped. And amped. And freakin' AMPED! And it turned nasty as it got stronger until there was the sense of the perfect perfume for me, a signature sort of scent, but it's loveliness was drowned by the rotten water from the forgotten vases of funeral flowers. It was Orchid Decay at its worst. I wanted to hold out and see if it faded, but I washed it off after I couldn't bear it and started to get nauseous. And the thing is...after washing, it smelled GREAT. Light, but great, back to that perfect perfume again. I was confused, lost and torn. So I waited. And a few days later... Same smell in the bottle. Same smell on initial application. So I wait in fear for the rotten flowers to come in. And they DON"T! On drydown - The orchid is there, and I'm still suspicious of it, but it plays nicely this time and lurks in the background, giving this a more feminine, perfumy air to this than the other Red Musk cousins I've tried. It's also a bit lighter, not as strong. This one doesn't hit you over the head. The orchid adds a sense of mystery and darkness. Possibly a hint of disquieting evil, if that's just not my lingering fear of it rising up to corrupt the rest of the scent - which is incredible. Smooth, sexy, slightly spicy, a hint on the plump and juicy side, if not actually fruity. Where Mme Moriarty is what I would wear if I wanted to be unsubtly dark and seductive, Mircalla is what I would wear if I wanted to only give hints of dark seduction, overlayed with a sense of womanly sophistication and opulence. If this one doesn't work when you first get it, let her rest a bit and she might surprise you. I suspect that aging will make this one better and better.

I, too, was hoping for a pumpkiny version of Planting Moon, and oh boy does this do the trick for me. Bottle - Stronger than Planting Moon, with a sweet buttery addition. I am quite excited. Wet - I was hoping that the tomato was tomato leaf or the outside of a green or home-grown tomato rather than the inside of a red one. And I WIN! This is a perfect, moist, shady, green scent. All tomato leaf and the milky sap from what I like to imagine is pumpkin vines. The fir is, to me, not overly prominent, but lends a deeper, greener and shadowy tone to the scent. I don't get much pumpkin at all this stage, just a sweetness and buttery note. Dry- And the pumpkin slowly rolls in. It's sun-warmed and smooth, not too sweet. Too sweet or too rich would detract from the lovely greenness of the rest of the scent. This is just perfect. And it's not squashy, it's, well, buttery is the only word for it. Like pumpkin pie without any of the spices, but better. Layering - I tried this on one hand with a bit of Bezoar on my other hand, and it became the smell of the most glorious hayride ever! WOOOO!

I assume it's OK to put the 2009 version reviews up here. Bottle - BUTTERSCOTCH!!! It's pure rich buttery butterscotch. Or maybe butterscotch schnapps, since it's quite boozeriffic. If I sniff carefully I can pick up a hint of apple. Delicious! Wet - Oh, hello apple! I 'd been wondering about you. The butterscotch almost disappears in the wake of juicy, crunchy apple. I swear sometimes it's dark Red Delicious and others it's crisp Granny Smith. At this point it's more caramel than butterscotch. Dry- This is lovely! The apple has faded back enough to let everything else blend in with it. It peeks out with a juicy crunch now and then, just to be sure you're paying attention, but is otherwise happy to mingle with the others. Over the apple is a scent that keeps shifting for me, sometimes butterscotch, sometimes pure caramel. Well, not pure. I swear this is a cream caramel. I am getting distinct wafts of smooth sweet cream, though the note isn't listed. The cream seems enhanced by the light coconut scent, so maybe it's more of a coconut cream? I think that's the note. Fresh young coconut cream, because this coconut smells nothing like suntan lotion, but is fresh and light. Every now and again there's a sense of a tiny whiff of something allllmost floral. Like maybe a breath of apple blossoms. Overall - I really love this. It has staying power and it's fairly strong (It stood out over the other scents I dabbed last night, outlasting them all, and the full test today is showing that wasn't a fluke). It's not too appley, but just right. I can't help but be reminded of a stronger, more assertive, and sweeter Agrat-Bat-Mahalat. Something in this is giving me the sense of the same skin musk as in that one. Because caramel apples shouldn't be sexy, but somehow this is. I do NOT smell like a little girl in this. At all. It's womanly. If I sniff hard at the wrist I do get a hint of the waxy scent that bothers me sometimes in scents with vanilla, but there's no hint of that in the waft. And oh, how delightful, there is considerable waft here.

Until someone does a better job of it, hope this helps: Pumpkin Patch and Tattie Bogle imp Pumpkin Patch 09 and My Halloweenies (Only Bite Me, Suck it, Creepy, Devil's Night, and Mircalla Countess Karnstein). Weenies (some) (Hope that works - Edited to load a clearer Pumpkin Patch photo.)

I was lucky enough to snag a bottle off a forumite. Yay! In the bottle I can't really smell much of anything. It's a soft, almost watery and slightly sweet smell, but very faint and vague. I was a little worried at this point. Wet, I have two experiences here. On the day of arrival, (also placed on the back of my hand)this was quite bright and lemony,with powerful wafts of dusty amber. After resting for a couple of days (and placed on my wrists), the lemon is completely absent. This now starts off with a sweet, golden, creamy amber scent. I catch the mallow very strongly here at the beginning, giving a slippery, creamy note that is a joy. This dries down to dusty golden amber and a slight whiff of hay drenched in early-fall sunshine. It's warm, comforting and light, but with strong staying power. It does take on a slightly powdery tone, but one perfectly suited to he other notes in this blend. Gorgeousness!!

I got this imp off a forum sale, and I'm very glad I did. Wet, this starts out as a good, even balance of dragon's blood and rose. The rose is a blend of fresh dark red petals and slightly dusty dried petals. The dragon's blood is rich and slightly spicy, with a hint of sugar. After some drying time, the wine, it must be the wine, comes in. To me, this is a cherry wine, since the note, to me, doesn't smell like cherry, but smells like the taste of fresh, dark, juicy cherries. It's a glorious, luxuriant blend, and makes me want to lounge on red velvet fainting couches instead of doing the real work I should be up to. Whimper.

Ok , I must be the weird one. No one else seems to be catching what I'm catching from the imp (I ordered a set of Gaimans from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund). In the imp this is knock-you-over BOOOOZE...and er...bananas. Lots of bananas. Bananas? Really? Despite the odd appearance of the yellow fruit I decide to actually try this on my skin. Thank goodness I didn't let the banana frighten me away! Instantly, and I mean within swift seconds, this blooms into the most glorious woodsmoke. And that's all I smell, this wonderful, smoky conflagration of gorgeousness for just a few minutes. After a while, this decides to tone down a bit and behave politely, and so is joined with the earlier boozy scent. For a few moments this smells like a rich, sweet smoking tobacco with a light, light, flavoring of banana that only shows up now and again. Dry, the smokiness remains, and it's rich and textured and wonderful, this time without any of the bananas, though there's still a lingering sweetness. There's still a warm hint of strong liqueur in this, and it makes for a wonderful, warm, comforting scent.

Oooooh! I didn't know you could do that! Thanks! I've just put in an order. There should be an Enablement Warning on this thread *giggle*. I'm so glad I popped in. And as for the OP's original question, the only one I hace so far is Mr. Nancy, which someone frimped a sniffy of to me, and I immediately ordered two bottles (one for me, one for the boyfriend). It is a wonderment of rum, cookies and lime that when fresh smells a bit like pancake syrup, but dries down into soft, sweet tobacco goodness. Mmmmmmmm! It's one of my favorite BPALs. (I think the syrup tones down with age, as the sniffy seemed old and had more of a lime kick than syrup sweetness, but I like both.)