arlith

How is it that I haven't reviewed this yet?

I also am one of the hoarders of the Tricksy bath oil. And shortly before this went live, I had to throw away over half of my bath oil collection because it went off. (since then I've had to throw away another bottle and a half that turned too.)

So, I was thrilled when this came out. But as wonderful as it is, its not the same as the bath oil. This one is sweeter, I can really smell the honey in it. I normally am a huge honey amper-it turns almost rancid smelling on me. This one doesn't. Its a nice honey. Overall, this is similar to the bath oil, but lighter/sweeter. Its not as dirty of a scent on me as the bath oil. More civilized.

I much prefer the bath oil version, but I'm glad I have this as a substitute, especially with so many of my bottles of the bath oil turning bad. I'm not sure I need quite as many bottles of it as I bought, but it should age very nicely.

I had a meet 'n sniff with lucyboo, ages ago. There we found that we were scent opposites. If it was something that smelled gross on her, it was lovely on me. Out of curiosity, she had me try on Egg Moon, since it was not pleasant on her. It was amazing on me.

Spicy with a background of creaminess, but not foody at all. And I refuse to believe that there is frankincense in this. I hate things that smell like incense. This is deep, and spicy and wonderful.

Lucyboo decided that since it smelled so good on me, that I should have it and gifted me the bottle. This is something I wouldn't have tried on my own, based on the scent notes. (I only like cinnamon and cassia from the listed notes of the scent-I don't know what three of them are and I hate frankincense.) Its one of my favorite scents and I've been wearing it a lot. Yay!

This is one of the biggest morphers on me that I've tried. Initially, its got an almost musky scent to me (I am not good at picking out notes), then it turns a little cloying and floralish. Once its totally dry, I get a bit of a plastic scent, I think that is the coconut. Its not nasty, but not something that's working for me.

I'm not a fan of florals at all, so I think my eyes just skimmed past that part and saw "lime, ginger" and thought I needed to buy it. So far, no coconut has worked on me.

This is light, and fresh smelling on me. I don't know if its the aging, or that I haven't worn either of them for so long, but it smells very similar to Lemon Scented Sticky Bat. I can't really identify any of the individual notes, its just a nice clean scent.

Sounds like you're on the right track to me! The best thing to do will be to go through the imps you receive (remembering that if you don't like something on the first try to let it sit for a couple weeks and try it at least once more) and find the ones you like and dislike. Look for common notes in the scents, so if a lot of your favorites have a note in common you can look for more scents with the same note. Ditto for notes you dislike. That will help you narrow down the bpal catalogue considerably so it's not overwhelming.

 

For example, I love rose. But every bpal I tried with rose in it just smelled like soap. I figured out that I can't wear that note, so every bpal with rose is a no-go for me (unfortunately).

 

Have fun! Maybe post what scents you've received that you like so far, and the forumites can make some recs based on those.

I had a similar thing happen to me. So to go with this, don't be afraid to try anything that comes your way, even if it sounds like you'll hate it. One of my favorite scents (Vixen) is one I would have never picked out to try when I first got into bpal. I try to skin test everything that I end up with, even if I think I won't like it. I just make sure to do the testing at home, where I can wash it off if it doesn't react well with my skin chemistry. (If you get a really stubborn one that doesn't wash off, you can try a bit of lemon juice on it, that usually help get of lingering bad scents. Or a bit of cooking oil, then lemon juice, then the soap. I've had some strong smell things.)

Definitely keep track of things, you'll see patterns and learn more of what is more likely to be a good oil for you. (I have a spreadsheet with things I've tried and liked, and another of things I didn't like.)

(And if you haven't already, check out the for sale section, it helps out so much when you have lots of things you want to try, you can get some really good deals there.)

Hello Minty Mint! My you are lovely, all chilly and festive. What's that? You brought your friend along for a playdate? Oh, how fun! I always did love Strawberry Shortcake dollies! That was very kind of you to ask her to wash off her strawberry scent so I could smell you more. The two of you together give me a nice nostalgic feel. If there had been a classy, minty doll, it would be you!

In other words, the almond turns to plastic on me, just like usual. I just had to give it a try though. The mint is very nice, similar to a Lick It scent, but more MINT and less sweetness.

Egad! What was I thinking?

Ok, so I was thinking that wood scents generally are nice on me. And rotted stuff turns pleasant. Somehow I thought they would offset the moss/ivy.

I was wrong. Very, very, very wrong.

I amp mossy stuff. This is cloying, and super mossy/green. Not good.

And like most things I amp...I can't get it to wash off. The smell is so strong, its like I spilled an entire bottle on myself, not put on two drops from a decant.

help me!

This smells amazing in the bottle, very pear and delicious. On my skin, it changes quite a bit.

Most of bpal's vanilla's turn to plastic on me, and that's exactly what this did. Its not an unpleasant plastic, sort of what a Pear Strawberry Shortcake doll would smell like.

I would have loved this when I was younger, but its just a little too sweet and plastic for me now.

Plumbers tape on the threads might be ok. My problem was with plastic wrap put over the mouth of the bottle, then the lid put on top. I don't think the plumber's tape on the threads would actually touch the oil in the bottle, the way the plastic wrap would. Especially if you just put it on the screw threads that were furthest away from the opening.

Might be worth a try with a partial bottle of something you don't like, to test it. It really sucks to lose a lot of stuff.

Also, the plastic was on my bottles of bath oil for a long time, months even, before I opened them. Possibly over a year on some of them.

This was the very first bottle purchase I made, I hadn't known about decant circles, and this sounded so nice to me that I had to try it.

Looking at the scent notes now, after learning what does and doesn't work for me, I probably wouldn't even try this one, but its one of those miracle scents. (And one of only a few chocolatey scents that don't turn rancid with my skin chemisty!)

Dry down, I get a warm, sweet, almost heavy scent. It doesn't have a lot of throw, just snuggles in close to me. I can't really tell which notes are coming out to play much, I think most of the sweetness is coming from the wine, but its not a boozy scent. Its aged beautifully, and I'm really glad I bought a bottle when it was released.

I'm a huge fan of ginger-scented things. And this one is fantastic! On me, its very fresh sharp ginger, like its just be cut and grated. Its mellowed out by something dark and dirty smelling. Absolutely perfect!

I'll be getting a bottle of this!

Weenies tend to be among my favorite scents, and I had high hopes for Hoggle.

When I first put some on, there was a definate buttery pumpkin smell. I didn't care for that, but it mellows out really quickly-within the first five minutes.

He definately turns delicious and reminds me of some of my favorite falls scents. With having lots of fall scents already, do I really need another pumpkiny fall scent?

YES! I do! Even though he'll probably not get a whole lot of wear, I'm still going to need a full bottle him! He's so yummy!

I didn't expect Gobo to be great on me, but he is! YAY GOBO!

He's reminds me a bit of Lemon Scented Stick Bat, only brighter and more fruity. I can almost taste the grapefruit.

Gobo is delicious and a bit fizzy to me. I'm most likely going to get a bottle of him. (After I give him a full-day test to see about his staying power.)

By far, my favorite Fraggle scent so far!

Mokey smelled the way I expected, floral. I don't generally like florals, and didn't expect to like Mokey either. As expected, I ended up washing her off fairly quickly. She's a Fraggle, and I had to try her, but she's just not for me.

Dear Boober,

I expected you to be clean, and almost antiseptic. I was shocked to find you warm and comforting too. My world turned upside-down on me. For someone so full of doom and gloom, you were so lovely and light. We had a great thing going, and really gave it our best shot. Unfortunately, I'm just a dirty, dirty girl and you're too clean for me. You almost managed to change me, but in the end, I had to be true to myself. I hope you can remember our time together as fondly as I do, you'll always have a special place in my heart.

Much love,

arlith

This sounded so fabulous to me. Luckily, I decided to get a full set of decants rather than go straight for a bottle. Chocolate is sometimes a little iffy on me. (The lab's cocoa tends to work a little better with my skin.)

I suspect it was the quince that turned on me. It definately went very weird. It went fruit and a bit sickly sweet; I had trouble washing it off.

Uncle Traveling Matt does not play well with me...good thing he's far away and just sending postcards.

I expected this to not be a good scent on me (I turn honey rancid almost all the time and fruity scents tend to go too sweet with my chemistry), but I had to try it out since I love Fraggles. And I was right, this isn't for me, but it didn't turn in the way I thought it would.

I ended up with a mishmash of pineapple, mint (odd-since my skin always Eats All Mint), banana and something I can't identify. Its a very Wembley scent, and smells exactly how his shirt looks.

I had to wash it off after about 20 minutes, just didn't agree with me.

If you like fruity scents, this one will probably work pretty well.

I wore my bottle of Lick It that I was gifted/won from a wonderful forumite all weekend! It really got me through the future in-law's holidays. (We went to 4 different christmas parties over the weekend...because apparently, no one can share celebrations.)

(They weren't bad parties, it was just getting to the "enough already" point.)

This is one of my beloved patchouli scents, patchouli and I are great friends!

I get a fantastic woody patchouli scent, that has a thin layer of candy over the top. I tend to amp sweet scents, but this one stays where it should be, a hint of sweetness-not too overpowering.

At application, its all "Hello Rootbeer!" Then it starts to dry and other notes come out to play. I don't know what champaca or tonka bean smell like, but I assume its them. I'm not able to pick out any of the tea scent. It ends up being slightly sweet, and herbalish without being all medicinal. Almost like some sort of old-fashioned candy or cough drop,not foody at all. Its quite nice and very unique.

I was hoping for something similar to Creepy. I was out of luck.

First, there's a nice fresh tart apple. About 5 minutes later, its all sugary-sweet with no apple in sniffing range. 5 more minutes and its completely gone. I quite enjoyed the tart apple phase, the sweet phase was a bit too much sugar for me. As a teenager-I would have adored it if it wouldn't get eaten by my skin, on adult me-its just too sugary.

Off to the swap pile it goes.

This smells juicy and green and fruity to me. Quite nice, and something I would have adored as a teenager. Then it dries and fades. It continues to fade until 2 hours later when there's pretty much nothing left to it. Sticking my wrist to my nose and huffing, I can get a very faint hint of it.

End result, its not for me. With the tweeniness of it and lack of staying power, I'll most likely pass it along.

When I first put this on, I get the lovely spicy chocolate that most of the people are talking about. Then it turns into just Snake Oil. I'd have to do a side-by-side test to see if its different at all once it dries, to me it doesn't seem different. If there is a difference that lasts beyond drying, I don't see it as a big enough one to want both a bottle of Snake Oil and Boomslang.

Yum!

For some reason, this reminds me a little of craft stores around Christmas. I know its not cinnamon in it, but it smells a little similar to the bags of potpourri, but not exactly like it-its got a bit of darkness to it. Its evil potpourri. The kind that lurks under your bed, waiting for you to walk by, so it can grab your ankles and devour you.

At the 3 hour mark after application, its definately going fruity. I'm not so sure about it anymore (for the first few hours I was looking at buying a full bottle of it). Plumzilla has come to play and decided to take over the body of the Evil Potpourri. It was an epic battle, Evil Potpourri put up a good fight, but we're left with a potpourri smeared Plumzilla, emerging victorious and lounging in the remains of loser.

End result, I love it at the start. As the hours go by it starts to morph into a fruity something, its still nice, but I don't want to roll around in a puddle of it anymore. It won't be a bottle purchase for me (I have a decant), but I'll probably hang onto the bit I have of it-the initial application is so fabulous.

Oh my! Where has TKO been all my life? I was a little afraid of it, because of the lavender. I was afraid it would be floral. But its not! When I first put it on, its got a nice herbal lavender scent, with a little sweetness. As it dries, more sweetness comes out. I can't really discribe what I'm smelling, but its calming and comforting. Like a big pile of blankets on a cold night. Or a hot cup of cocoa after you been outside. Warm, sweet and snuggly.

I wore it to bed last night, I don't think it helped me fall asleep faster. However, I didn't wake up nearly as many times as I normally do, and there weren't the really wierd dreams that have been plaguing me for the last couple of weeks. (At least not that I remember.) I didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but that's pretty normal for me. But this time, instead of being sleepy, I just wanted to snuggle under the covers. It was so warm and cozey in there. I still smelled of the TKO this morning, enough so that I just put a little more on. I try not to mix scents together until one is almost completely faded. (Next time, I might try a little on my wrist, where its easier to wash off.

There's going to be a big bottle of this in my future. Probably several big bottles. Its a lovely scent, and it really did relax and calm the chaos that lives in my head.