Mousesong

Old review follows. New review, with more adventurous nose: The same actual observations about notes, etc. apply: vanilla extract poured onto a warm, slightly moist heap of dark, dark loam. But that whole "wow, this is gorgeous" has totally overcome my initial fear. I am going to go add this to my potential bottle list. It's one of the most lovely and soothing things I've ever smelled. I think part of the gorgeousness, also, came from the aging, not just my own maturing nose. It's a lot less WHOOMPH now and a lot richer than I remember it being, darker. This is a really bizarre blend, speaking as a total newbie. When I first opened the imp I didn't get "slight" or "faint" dirt. I got a huge fistful of dirt flung right into my face. My mom, however, did not. I took a few more whiffs and I could get the vanilla on the underneath but it was definitely fighting the dirt. On? Mom says: "Oh god, that reeks of dirt. Why do you want to smell like dirt?" And I answered that I didn't but I wanted to know if you could actually BOTTLE that smell, and hot damn, you can. Accurately. Painfully accurately. On and semi-dry, the vanilla starts to crop up, and this is my first BPAL vanilla note and now I cannot wait for Dorian and Snake Oil to get here. Unfortunately I'm having to go through the dirt for it, which is less than pleasant. I expected dirt, so I mean, this isn't disappointing or anything, it's just fascinating to me! After it dries completely I can tell that a lot of people would find this utterly gorgeous. It's definitely a soothing scent. Vanilla and dirt blend surprisingly well, and it's beautifully warm and soft around the edges. But I, personally, don't like the smell of dirt. Curiosity satisfied! Off to swaps. EDIT: If I don't like it, why can't I stop smelling my arm? This is fascinating. EDIT2: Because it smells flipping gorgeous after about a half-hour, that's why. But I cannot deal with the wet stages, so unfortunately not a keeper for me.

Rosewood and black cherry with white musk, red rose, red musk and a spark of lavender. Reading some of these reviews makes me wonder if my imp is mislabeled or something. It smells, alas, like astringent floor cleaner to me. I get a hint of cherry and lavender if I focus, but the rest don't show up at all. My nostrils must be broken or something, but I see TeaLeaf had a similar reaction, so I take comfort. Anguisette also pointed out that it smelled like "nothing," which after a few minutes on my skin also proves to be true. It's a smell, and it's there, but it doesn't smell like anything. It's just this sharp cleaning odor hanging onto my wrists. Off to swaps! EDIT: Added description.

This was another one of the disappointing ones for me in my first batch of samples. I'm trying to be gentle, here, so that was a bit of an understatement. I actually had this bottle for two weeks before I could man up enough to put it on my skin, since it smelled so rank in the imp. It changed dramatically out of the bottle, but was unfortunately still rank. Now, my skin has a tendency to turn fruits into onions (odd!), but that didn't happen here, and I almost feel like it would have been an improvement if it had. It smelled like very thick, slightly rancid fruit in the bottle, and smelled the same way on my skin, but with less amber and much, much more musk than I'd managed to sniff in the imp--although those were both faint under the reek of the fruit. It was cloying and heavy and frankly stunk. I don't think it was my skin chemistry this time, like it was when I got so much disappointment from Miskatonic U. This time I am pinning the blame squarely on the smell, which was just plain offensive to my nose. Mom took it a little better and said it wasn't bad, but that she wasn't lining up to wear it, either. She agreed with my assessment of "cloying." I think it smells a bit like a winery, if you've ever had the experience of visiting one. Most people tell me that wineries smell quite delicious, but when I visited the one my friend worked at, I had to resist the urge to hold my nose and retch the entire time I was there. It was around Christmas and I was actually trying to subtly drown the smell by sticking my nose into bunches of the greenery they had hanging up. I find the weirdest smells unappealing. Maybe I shouldn't be reviewing this. Please to be taking with grain of salt! The patchouli also came out on my skin, I should mention, and I have a really odd relationship with patchouli. Depending on what it's with, I either adore or loathe it. In this case, apparently, it's loathing. When I looked up the scent notes on the site before trying this on I had really hoped that the amber, one of my favourite smells ever, would star. Unfortunately it's just a trace to me, like a drop of it in a barrel of slightly-turned apples. This was a random imp thrown into my samples so I'm not feeling too much heartbreak over it, but it's definitely off to the swap pile as fast as it can go. To each his own!

This does, indeed, smell like the world's most gorgeous, sweetest, Bailey's-laced coffee in the imp. I get the faintest dusty-page notes if I concentrate, but no wood. On my skin it turned immediately into freshly-opened play-doh. No coffee, no wood, no dust. Just raw play-doh. It flashed me right back to kindergarten. So disappointed! My mom likes it for putting on her pillow, though. She digs a kahlua-spiked cup of coffee before bed. So not a waste! Definitely worth a smell if you like coffee smells. Ignore my funky skin.

It must be the teak, but I immediately get incense on this one. It smells exactly like the inside of a pagan bookstore. It's absolutely beautiful, and on the drydown I start picking up hints of the sweetness from the vanilla and this incredibly gorgeous richness that much be the tobacco I keep hearing so much about. Very intriguing, and kept me sniffing for a good long time. It also has impressive staying power. Unfortunately even though it smells incredible and I could not keep practically trying to stick the imp up my nose, I can't see myself wearing it. Too evocative, if that makes sense. I'll most likely be sending it to a friend of mine who has developed an obsession for this scent, as a thank you for introducing me to BPAL.

I have to be entirely honest. This was in my first batch of samples, and when I opened it, I retched. Having already learned my lesson about smell-in-bottle-not-matching-smell-out-of-it with Langour, I put it on. And it smelled different. And I retched again. Honestly I wondered at first if the milk note had gone sour, but I think it's just the combination of pepper and milk for me. It's cloying and literally turned my stomach. I even let it dry and nope, still made me retch. I couldn't scrub it off fast enough. Not for me! It'll be the first thing I go to swap, or I may even toss into into another swap for free since I'm so worried that the milk note has somehow gone off--someone will love it, if it's not just an off bottle. Pretty sure it's just the pepper/milk combo I'm finding so offputting, though. Obviously it's a well-loved smell--I guess it's just not up my alley. EDIT: I am learning, a year and a half later, that the honey note makes me sick (Sudha Segara made me physically sick) to my stomach and milk can do the same... take review with this in mind.

I bought this to give it a sniff for a friend who says she is looking for the smell of a florist's cooler--"cold flowers" she says--and, normally not being a fan of florals, figured I'd have to man (woman?) up long enough to give it an objective assessment. It has since become my second-most favourite in this lot of samples (my first, by the way!) and I love it so much I haven't sent it to her yet. I may keep it. It is a "cool" scent, but whatever is making it feel cool gets swallowed up by the flowers pretty rapidly on me. It's probably the herbal notes listed in the description, but it's the first time I have ever smelled a floral that smells like real flowers, with stems and leaves and roots. It smells like burying your face in a bouquet of lilies, right down into the leaves. It's a powerful "flower" smell--so much that no one I've forced it on yet has been able to name a specific type of blossom, let alone linden. It's like the essence of flower (and plant) sifted down to its core components and poured into a bottle. I get the baaarest fruit note under it all, not an obnoxious fruit, but something subtle. Again, I can't even name a specific fruit. It's just "fruit." Unfortunately it's incredibly faint on me, with almost zero throw, and it fades quickly--appropriately, I guess, given its name, but tragically. It's pretty, but it's just too fleeting.

Disappointment at the end of this review My first review! I don't recognize most of the notes in this blend so I'll have to be vague here. This is screaming chaos in the imp. I can't believe I hated it when I first opened it, but I did--it was just this hot assault on my nose. I corked it and went for the Antikythera Mechanism for a while before I got the guts to put it on. I am so glad I finally did. When I first put this on it is damn near the best thing I have ever smelled. It smells like honey and sage and hot machinery... I don't get lemon at all, whether it's my nose or this particular sample. I do get a definite "powdery honey" on the drydown, but it's a good powdery. More like dust than, say, baby powder. Still a weird, sharp, hot note on top of everything--like gun oil, as Hawke said. This is an odd comparison, but if you've ever smelled a freshly-bathed rat on the back of the neck, it's similar to a sweeter, less pungent version of that musky metallic smell they give off. I used to keep pet rats so it's a positive smell for me. I should also mention that lots of rat people compare that smell to--guess what!--gunmetal. A friend of mine was so strongly struck by the similarity that he once recommended I name two rats I'd just bought Smith and Wesson. They were climbing around his neck and he kept exclaiming, "they smell like guns! They smell like freshly-oiled guns!" No. 93 smells like guns! It smells like freshly-oiled guns! + honey + sage + something else? I wore it today at work and a lady leaning into my cubicle sniffed and suddenly said: "Do you smell that? It smells like... like sugar and almost like metal! It smells amazing!" She was astonished when I said it was my perfume. I don't think she thought that metal and heat-smell could be bottled, but apparently it can. Strangely, it's a very sexy smell--not romantic or cute or pretty at all, but a juuuust slightly raunchy smell. Even on a woman. But then again, I can almost never pull off girly scents. I have to get a bottle of this. I am paranoid that the bottle I get is going to reek of lemon, which I don't get at all, but I'll have to try my luck. I've only worn it twice and I've already gotten two compliments and been hit on once. Amazing! EDIT: Okay, something odd. So I'm down to the last few drops in my imp (already!) and they frankly reek. I haven't been shaking or rolling the imp so this doesn't surprise me at all. I know better for next time. But I thought I'd mention that once the sour smell in those drops settled down, I distinctly--DISTINCTLY--smelled flat coca-cola. So, Laura B, it isn't just you! EDIT again: Someone sent me a bottle, mostly full. It smells like flat coke. WHYYYYYYY. Why ;-; I am reluctant to order another imp because I think it always smells like flat coke and my beautiful lovely amazing imp was a fluke.