madelf

A fine confection for discriminating trick or treaters: a fig meat, coconut, and buttercream bonbon rolled in orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove and ginger, dipped in milk chocolate. This oil is utterly delectable from the almost boozy buttercream beginings, through a brief spicy orange period to its final dry down as a scrumptious macaroon dipped in chocolate. It actually isn't quite as foody as it sounds. It stays surprisingly light and close to the skin, but it has great staying power. I think this may be a new favourite scent. It is the most perfect sweet scent I can imagine.

Monster Bait: Underpants smells very similar to the other Monster Baits in the bottle - almost overwhelmingly sweet, with a smidge of booze. I was very hopeful, since sweet and boozey are two things I love in a perfume. Once on, it had a nice throw - vanilla and rum with just a hint of saffron. Next to the skin, however, I smell like Indian food. The saffron is very strong, with nothing vanilla or rum like even peaking through. The sandlewood is putting up a good fight for dominance, though, and the scent next to my skin, while neither strong nor unbearable, is not pleasant for perfume. Luckily, the dry down is quite nice. After awhile, it has settled into the same sort of vanilla that I get from Snowblind. No rum, no saffron and no sandlewood, but after the unfortunate reaction I seemed to have with the wet stage, a creamy, if plain, vanilla is lovely. I think I'm going to have to try this again. I did like the dry down, but the early stage might make this one for the swaps.

Yum - this is a musky, dry vanilla blend. I get little whiffs of tobacco and something else that I can only describe as dry, maybe some sort of resin. When I first sniffed this in the bottle, I expected something sickly sweet. It is far from that on - really sexy, not overly foody at all. It really does seem like a cross between Snake Charmer and Perversion on me. It seems to have pretty good staying power, too. I put a little on last night, and I can still catch little hints of it today. Overall - Storyville has the potential to become a new favourite. I'll have to try it a few more times to be sure.

Voodoo Queen is fantastic - very spicy. I get a lot of clove or cinnamon in this blend. After a bit it softens to a lightly spicy musk. It reminds me a lot of Torture King for some reason, although in a distantly related sort of way.

Antique Lace was not my cup of tea. It is a very soft, light floral with just a hint of sweetness. It lasted for a long time, and would have been a perfectly lovely oil if it wasn't for one off note. I have no idea what it is, but it is the same dusty note that's in Miskatonic University - and both of them make me sneeze my head off.

Cassanova helped me enable a male friend of mine. I gave him some imps to try, and this turned out to be the favourite. On him it is fresh and warm, like a nice cup of herbal tea. It develops a nice hint of leather, and smooths into a slightly creamy version of the herbal scent. I never caught any patchouli. After a little bit, this softened into a lovely skin but better scent. Overall Cassanova is a winner. It's masculine, sexy but still a very warm, comforting blend. It's gorgeous and I'm glad my friend fell in love with it.

Have you tried Suspiro or Thalia? Both of those are lovely light florals, at least on me.

I actually found that Jazz Funeral had a really similar feel on me to Devil's Night. Luckily I can love up the one and not go into withdrawals from the other.

Pink Phoenix made me cry. It is a lovely honey/vanilla/strawberry scent in the bottle. On me it is strawberry pez and flowers. The honey and vanilla are gone. The sweet pea is amped to an extreme and BPAL's strawberry note hates me something fierce. I'm hoping another chance will bring out the yummy vanilla and honey, but otherwise Pink Phoenix is off to the swaps.

Aizen-Myoo is a very sour bitter cirtus in the imp, but on it is lovely and wearable. I can completely understand the comparisons to Baobhan Sith, but where Sith went cleaning fluid on me, Aizen-Myoo is just clean. The grapefruit like citrus blends nicely with the tea and hint of cherry blossom. It is surprisingly strong for such a light scent, and has a lot of throw. Still, I really like this. It reminds me a lot of Embalming Fluid, which I adore. It's very fresh and envigorating. I'm seriously considering a bottle of this.

I was really hopeful for this when I saw the notes. Dragon's blood and clove are some of my favourites. On, this is really strong, and not as sweet as I would have thought. The clove is faint and very dry, and the dragon's blood smells thick and not anywhere as sweet as it usually seems in blends. Even the cherry, which normally seems just sickly sweet on me, is subdued almost to the point of non-existance. The myrrh really dominates this blend when I'm wearing it. It makes all the normally sweet or gourmand notes very exotic and dark. I like this, although I don't know if I would ever get a bottle. It is very bold and just a little too agressive for me to wear on a regular basis. Still, a little of this got on my sheets and it smelled fantastic - I would totally love to have my house smell like this all winter.

Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. I was a little nervous after smelling this in the bottle - it wasn't bad, but something just struck me as off, and a little pungent. On, however, it is a lovely spicy orange tobacco scent. I don't really get any chocolate type note at all, and the musk is a really light background presence, but making itself known. There is something very dry in the blend that I can't really place - almost like ground up incense or very crumbly dried herbs. I which I could tell exactly what they are. It conjures a very interesting blend of images - a warm wasteland - maybe a desert with the sun beating down on it. The Great Sword of War is lovely. It has some similarity to other oils, like Cerberus or 13, but the spicy dryness makes it really stand out on it's own merits. It is definately worth a bottle.

I ordered a bottle from the Lab this summer, took one sniff of it and put it away in my BPAL box. It leapt out at me for a test today, so I gave it a chance. On a positive note - it does smell very clean, like fresh sheets just out of the dryer or a bathroom right after a long shower - soap, lotion, dryer sheets...things that I associate with cleaning. Now the bad side - Numb smells exactly like Oil of Olay on me. It's too strong to be powdery, and all I get is Oil of Olay face lotion. It's not horrible, but it reminds me so strongly of that lotion that I can't really enjoy it as a perfume nor do I think I could tolerate it as a room scent. I really tried to give Numb a chance, but it is just not for me.

I really didn't expect to like this one. Most heavily floral oils and I don't get on. Still, Stardust really is appealing, even to me. It's very perfume-y. I can see where everyone is getting hairspray from. Still, there is a bit of sweetness, probably from the champagne, and the musk and sandlewood keep things from being overwhelmingly floral. This scent really captures an image. It smells heady, like a small room crammed with too many bodies - perfumes blending in the air until it is just a musky, decadent cloud. Oddly enough, I really enjoy Stardust. I don't know that I would wear it all the time, but it seems like a perfect perfume for a night of dancing. Perfect for New Year's Eve.

Snowblind is utterly gorgeous. It is a sweet, creamy mint scent. The vanilla gives the mint, which is often a little too sharp on me, a softness that is delectable. Both notes are very present in this blend, but neither overwhelms the other. This oil made me so happy - I love mint, so I was thrilled to find an oil where the mint was wearable for me. It lasted all through my family Christmas without needing a reapplication, and it was great to get a comforting little whiff of this every now and then.

I'm not a floral person, in general, so I was a bit worried about Jazz Funeral. My worries were completely unfounded. This scent is amazing. It's very multilayered with a light, earthy note as the base and just a touch of sweet floral. The bourbon is an amazing top note, heady, sweet, just a smidge of booze. Overall, this became a new favourite. It is surpsingly warm and sweet, but the dirt makes it really interesting and distinctive.

French Love is probably my favourite smelling of the voodoo blends that I've tried. It's a sweet dragon's blood scent, with just a hint of something spicy in it. It's very soft and pleasant, and really quite nice just as a perfume. Its voodoo properties must be pretty good, since the first night I wore it, I ended up getting attacked by cute boys trying to smell me - and occassionally trying to get a nibble in as well, right where the French Love had been applied. Heck - I'm not going to argue with results like that.

This reminds me of a sparkling white white almost exactly. There is a light, watery floral which must be the lotus, and just a smidge of pear scent. This is a little disappointing, since I bought this expecting some juicy pear type deliciousness. It's very pretty, but not really me. Still, as a perfume, this is a light, unobtrusive blend. It seems like it would be perfect for an office or wedding, or even a nice spring day.

Carnal is simple, but somehow still a little spicy and exotic. The madarin and fig are sweet, but not overly so and there isn't the sharpness that I usually associate with citrus notes. It is a nice mellow blend, and it seems like this would make a great room scent along with being a comforting perfume.

I was thrilled to finally get my hands on a bottle of Mabon. The listed notes all sounded fantastic. It is a very complex fragrance - very woodsy with just a hint of sweetness from the berries. It is far more gender neutral than I would have expected, but very nice. The scent doesn't morph much from it's original state - it stays woodsy and just a tiny bit sweet the entire time that it is on. It doesn't have a whole lot of staying power, which was disappointing, but since the smell is so consistant, reapplication isn't a problem. This wasn't really what I expected, but it's a lovely blend. This will be getting some major love from me when the weather gets a bit colder. It seems like a great fall scent with all the crisp, woodsy notes.

Dragon's Heart is rapidly becoming a new favourite. The dragon's blood is sweet, and it has a delicious spiciness underneath it. I always think it smells like there is clove in this blend, but it isn't a listed note. The fig and current are present, but very light background notes, which actually works really well. The musks are also subtle, so no single note becomes overpowering with Dragon's Heart. Overall, this is sweet and spicy without any sort of obvious foodiness to it. It has great staying power, and is wonderfully distinctive. It's an amazing sexy fall oil.

I received this in a swap, and I am thrilled. This is a fantastic grapefruit scent - a very fresh and tangy citrus. The tea in the background gives it some depth, and while ginger seems to be hit or miss on me, it works well in Baobhan Sith. This is light but long lasting, and felt very energising. I'm sorry that it got discontinued, since it is really marvelous, particularly if one wants a citrus that isn't sweet or foody.

This smells gorgeous in the bottle - sweet red wine and just a smidge of floral and clove. On is a differant story. Next to my skin is a very nice wine/clove scent that I love. However, there is a throw in this that is some kind of stinky - a weird liquor soaked floral that just smells odd and not very pleasant. Unfortunately, that is all I could smell for the first two hours, unless I held my wrist directly to my nose. After the two hour mark, this toned down into a very dry scent that I would normally associate with amber on me. It is a bland spice that just isn't working for me at all. Not unpleasant, but boring. I'm going to give this another try to make sure, but it looks like Madrid may be off to swaps.

After sniffing this in the bottle, I was very nervous about Kabuki. It smelled like NyQuil and cherry cough syrup. Yuck. I tried it on, and am very glad that I didn't judge it by the bottle scent. The musk is very prominent and keeps the anise from being too licorice smelling, and the cherries are mostly a background hint. This is a really deep scent - very heavy and thick smelling, surprisingly sexy. Overall, I enjoyed Kabuki a lot. I don't like the smell of anise very much, but it works really well in this oil. I highly recomend that people give this a try.

This is yummy without being foody. The musk and sandlewood are the big foreground notes in this, but the mandarin/mango combination still peeps out every now and then. This has a perfect underlying sweetness to make people wonder exactly what they are smelling. This got a lot of compliments from my friends and customers. Kuang Shi continued my streak of "You have the best perfumes" comments.