quinctia

In the bottle, I get pomegranate plus some sort of...it really made me think of cologne as an undernote. It was very subtle at this point. On me, the pomegranate fades a bit and I can identify that there's definitely some sort of musk in here. I'm not entirely an expert on musk, it's definitely not white musk, but it's pretty vampy. My guess is a red musk. The fruit doesn't last very long on me, but this might be a good scent if I feel vampy.

After I smelled this in the bottle last night when I got my package, I knew what I was wearing today. It's got a very syrupy sort of scent in the bottle, coupled with some rich spiciness. Oddly enough, I don't find this as heavily clovey as something like Three Witches can be, just more spicy. This has rather good throw and lasting power on me. It definitely settles down to a warm spicy scent on me...I don't really get much sassafrass. Though it does still seem distinctly "brown," if that makes any sense at all. I really love this.

Let's precede this review by praying that the gardenia in this stays tame. Okay! In the imp: I smell honeysuckle, frankincense, parsley, carnation, in that order. This should be interesting. On me: I can really smell the honeysuckle and the frankincense. Basically, something soft and golden tempered with this resinous background. This reminds me a lot of Skuld, without the honey, oddly enough. Skuld goes really honey on me, but is like the only really honey-like BPAL on me. So it doesn't surprise me that Litha is not very honey, my skin eats it. I'm getting parsley a lot more as it dries down...this scent is pleasant enough until I turn into a garnish. It's drying down even further into a general herbal scent. Damn, I actually liked the honeysuckle part of that, so now I'm disappointed.

In the imp, lots of musk, little bit of orange blossom. On me, ORANGE BLOSSSSSSSSOM. (Luckily, it's not a floral note of doom for me.) It burns down after awhile, leaving mostly musk. This blends well with the bath oil, though I shower in the evening and the bath oils don't last long enough to blend with my morning perfume application, generally!

Semiramis bath oil: It smells very sweet and ambery in the bottle. Odd because there's not amber listed in it. On me, it goes very incensey, the myrrh jumps out, which I don't mind. I think I get a good blend of the cherry and blood orange in the background, but I'm not smelling much pomegranate. It's still nice. It feels more "mature" than Tomoe Gozen for some reason.

'm a bit surprised by the color of the oil, which is pretty dark. I was imagining a light almost clear oil, like Sugar Skull for this. In the imp: Sweet and syrupy. On me: Oh wow, there is some sort of spice aspect to this blend, because I am amping it. Also (pleasantly) surprising is that the sweetness is now a bit dry, but I expected that with the description of candy corn. But it's very sweet, a bit spicy...cloying enough where it reminds me of clove, but I'm thinking it's actually more of a cinnamon + sugar mixed together. (Looking upthread and seeing the mentions of Chimera, I get the comparison. It's not completely identical, but it smells like it's Chimera's cousin or something.) After complete drydown: I can actually sniff some candy corn-ness now, but there's still some spice. You know, a lot of oils do change with a bit of aging, but I haven't had that happen too much with the really foodie ones, so I'm surprised the spices have amped up this much.

Will this disappoint? It was on my very first wishlist, was discontinued before I got a chance to try it, and then I didn't get ahold of it when it was resurrected. EEEP. In the bottle, I get a nice sweet golden smell. On me, the lotus amps up a little, and I get effervescent golden gum or chewy candy. It's a great sweet, happy scent and it was worth the wait.

Another decant acquired on the basis of one note: grenadine. I could write an ode to grenadine. I love me a good tequila sunrise. But let's smell this. In the imp, I get tart fruit, much more tart than in Unicorn, the sharpness of the gin, and the tang of fizz. Yes, fizz has a smell, this reminds me of a fizzy soda pop incense I had. On me, it's like gin having an all out battle with a Shirley Temple. I think the gin is winning, though. It's interesting, but I don't think it's a scent I'd wear. I'm not a big evergreen fan, and the juniper from the gin is the note on top here.

I want this to be evil candy. Please be evil candy. In the imp...evil candy. Squee. On me, it's still evil candy. My favorite blends usually the ones that actually stay blended and don't amp one or two notes. I smell sticky gooey candy with a whiff of tobacco smoke and—I don't actually enjoy drinking rum, but as a note it gets along well with me—just the hint of rum, maybe a slight twist of whiskey. Evil toasted caramelized candy. And I can't stop sniffing it. I need a bottle.

This almost smells like a sexy lemon drop in the imp. On me...sexy lemon drop. What is giving it that tang, I wonder? On dry down, I get a white musk vibe from it. You know, the purest, least carnal of the musks sort of musk. Even so, I find even that sort of musk slightly sexy, so we've still got sexy lemon drops. I like it all right, and I'm glad I got this decant on a whim, but it's not bottle-level territory. I may keep the imp, though.

In the imp, awesomely sweet berry-cherry. On me, I've still got some tartness, but it's being tempered by the utter oooze of sweet sugar. It's still a bit fresh, though, it's not syrupy like Sugar Skull or Pink Phoenix. Oddly, I get some note underlying all of this that tempers it down a bit, lets it stay fruity and sweet without becoming overwhelmingly foodie. (Though I like overwhelmingly foodie, this is a refreshing change from...half my other BPALs.) I don't think it is especially close to Midway. It's also not much like Strawberry Moon, though it's close to how I had hoped Strawberry Moon would smell.

In imp, sweet—I can smell the lily of the valley, a bit of the apple, and definitely the honey, plus the bite of the myrrh. The ambrette comes out when I've got the wand swooping towards my arm! The lily of the valley is amping a bit on my skin, and I don't entirely mind, one of my few pre-BPAL perfumes was lily of the valley. I'm very disappointed to lose the complexity, though, as it goes completely LotV on me. There's maybe a touch of myrrh left, but that's it. I know my skin eats the lab's most used honey note, and I'm beginning to think it eats apple, too. After awhile, it smells like I'm wearing just lily of the valley, strong lily of the valley at that. I'm beginning to think that I don't necessarily mind florals, it just that they amp up so much on me that's the real reason why I can't stand wearing them.

The prominent smell in the imp is the strawberry...I get the creamy, deep background note from the chocolate, but this is very berry. On me...I'm still getting the strawberries, but it's not any strawberries. It's the rich, syrupy strawberry topping you get on a sundae or banana split. There's perhaps a hint of chocolate behind this, but that could be the White Chocolate, Marshmallow, and Coconut left further down on my arm. This is not a chocolate scent on me, which means I also love it. Damn it.

Excited to try this because of the marshmallow note! In the imp, I get a deep, bitter cocoa note mainly, though it softens up a bit as it wafts away. On me, wet—a couple seconds of confused explosion of sweetness, then...MARSHMALLOW. It's almost like chocolate marshmallows. What coconut there is is riding above the rest of the scent, very faintly. I can't remember getting a prominent coconut note in any other foodie blend I've tried with coconut, though, so maybe it's just me. I must scare coconut away. God, this is just like hot chocolate with marshmallows. I'm aiming to try all of the chocolate box and nab a bottle of one or two faves, but how can the others top this?

All right, Agape. As long as we don't get a lot of sweet pea, we should have an interesting, fun time together. In the imp, it's guava. Ripe as hell guava. Add in a little pomegranate, and on me, this is like fruity punch. As it dries down, I can get a whiff of carnation—this is all right, carnation and me are buddies. I enjoy this tropical punch smell, though. It's seriously like what hawaiian punch would be like if it were more than like 5% juice! And had a carnation in it. I'm a little disappointed in the fade time, it seemed to fade pretty quickly. Bright fruits do tend to fade quicker on me than some notes, and if all I was left with was the carnation after that, it makes sense. I'm going to pick a day and slather some on, though, and see if that changes things up at all.

This is a scent that has two possible endings in my head. One is a booze-addled, patchouli filled stinkfest (I can deal with a touch of either in moderation), and the other is a softly sweet vanilla tempered with some darker notes...that may reach the lofty point of “What I Imagined Snake Oil Smelled Like Before I Actually Tried It.” In the imp, I get... Patchouli, being a big bully, shoving everyone out of the way, and daring me to put it on my skin. D: It's not actually that bad on me, but it is definitely masculine in nature. As most masculine scents end up to me, I'd love this on a man, but not on myself. I didn't get hardly any sense of vanilla on me at all.

I have to say, this is probably my favorite BPAL ever, and I don't know if there's a way to oust it. (If there is, it involves a magical blend of raspberry, the honey from Skuld, bitter almond and chai spices that is as of yet unknown to mankind.) I get a very tart berry note in the bottle, and once it's on me, it turns into the most delicious blackberry-drenched cake in the world. One of the worst days in my life was when I accidentally spilt a good portion of my bottle. Luckily, tracking down a replacement wasn't too difficult at the time. If this ever gets resurrected, I'm buying more, and I only keep one bottle of a scent generally. It's that good.

How crazy. I ordered a bottle of this, because how could I not enjoy it somewhat with the spices and the fruit, and we can't forget the almond. Eclipse was my first love for a reason. In the bottle, it smelled vaguely fresh. Planty and alive, but sweet. On me, it wasn't unpleasant, but still sort of fresh and green. With perhaps an undercurrent of spice/resin, but certainly nothing standout. Not even the delicious juiciness I get from something like Akuma. I'm completely baffled. I was sure enough of the scent that, even though I was "testing," I went and wore it out and it never grew on me. I don't usually buy GCs unsniffed, but the last time I did that was with Cockaigne and it worked out splendidly. I'm jealous of everyone else and their fruity/foodie results!

It's like an immediate taste of caramel with a strong aftertaste of mint in the imp. On me, it's similar, but I don't like the effect—I'm searching for the caramel note in a sea of a clean, aftershavey scent. But the caramel is still mysteriously hanging around. TEASE.

DCXCII (692? It seems a little high, but my label was very smudged and fell off my fuller than full bottle.) This was interesting to me, because O was always on my "I need to get a bottle someday" list, but I was never completely in love with it to make it top priority. The first time I sniffed/wore it, I was like "Yep, smells like O." This time, I got out an imp, and swiped and smelled O first for a starting point. In the bottle: CHERRY O. Like twizzlers drenched in O. I find this puzzling, because... On me, both wet & dry: O, with a bit of a dry undertone. Almost spicy, if I had to pin it down, I'd put it as a musk. And not white musk. If it was a little sweeter...I'd almost claim bitter almond, but I've sought out and worn all the blends with that note, and I don't think that's it. If it were hotter, I'd say pepper. I'm still going with musk. After awhile, twenty minutes or so: The musk/whatever note burns off, and it leaves me with a less cloying version of O. Explains my initial confusion...the sweet blast at the beginning is cloying like O, and it smells very O-like at the end. But it's different! ...I still kind of want a bottle of real O.

Chaos Theory D: I uncap the bottle, and it smells sweet without florals. SCORE. I'm getting weird looks from my father at this point, so I pack everything up and move it to my room. Later, I analyzed it a bit more. To me, Pink Moon and Pink Phoenix smell really similar. I was actually slightly disappointed, hoping PP would be more strawberry on me. Instead, it was like a more vivid PM. Whatever "pink" note they share is in Chaos Theory D. I also get a hint of the sweetness I get from any almond scent when it's wet. But a little more robust. When I have it on, it's definitely that PP note, the strong pinkness, but half and half with the main sugary fruity sweetness of Sugar Skull. That sliiiiiight booze edge in the background, even. I like PP and PM, and LOVE Sugar Skull. This is definitely good for a foodie like me. I need to do some side-by-side testing to be sure.

I picked this because I knew it had the same almond note as my beloved Eclipse (bitter), the other two notes are ones I know I get along with, and I wanted to find out what exactly goes powdery on me in Eclipse. Also, I've layered Eclipse with Chimera before, so almond + cinnamon = win. In the imp: YES, my beloved almond. Wet: ALMOND. Then the cinnamon comes out...and out...and out. (Part of me is going "Oh no, what if I smell like Big Red forever," and the other is going "YES, better cinnamon for layering than Chimera RIGHT HERE.") Dry: Faded cinnamon. No powder, though, so bitter almond is not a powder culprit. I will try this in my scent locket, because the wet seems like even more pure almondy goodness than Eclipse, even. I don't know if I want a bottle, but this is perfect for layering...and I think I like it better than Chimera and Three Witches.

In the imp, it smelled nice and sweet. I was both happy and wary--O is the only honey blend that I've tried where I've continued to smell honey after I'd put it on. Wet: SWEET and HONEY and it's already lasted longer than Honey Moon's honey. I also get that mysterious fruity-ness here that many others seemed to get. Not quite distinctive enough for me to say grape or berry, but definitely fruit. Dry: Mmm...it's still nice and sweet, and there's a faint waft of a really, really sweet flower. But it doesn't stay floral. (Score for me.) Now I have to go look up which of my bottles has a touch of ylang-ylang, because it looks like that might be a flower I actually get along with.

I got a decant of the 03 version of this scent in a Mystery Imp pack and I love it. In the imp and while wet, I get some sharpness and some berry...I imagine that's a little bit of pine or something similar. But once it's on, all I get are berries -- not really tart or sugary, just sweet enough. I think it's something I will definitely put on. I'd like to get some more, but I'm not sure if any of the following Yuletide blends were the same.

Wow, this was a frimp with my holiday LE order and I'm only now trying it! It starts off milky and honey-y...then I got a little bit of the plasticy transition state I got with Midway. After about five minutes the plastic goes away, and I'm left with a creamy vanilla sort of scent. On me, Dana O'Shee is O without the sex. All innocent.