strahlend

First sniff – sharp piercing lavender, but stays on this side of pleasant. I like this better than the expensive lavender perfume I have a sample of (Caldey Island Lavender). Testing – this is a fantastic lavender. Sharp enough to smell like real lavender flowers but just slightly rounded. Love it. Perfect balance of sharp but rounded out and beautifully accented (but not overwhelmed) by the ginger and plum blossom. I can see myself wearing this often and have it on my bottle list.

First sniff – very light and airy incense. Airy sweetness. Skin testing – this is very much like wearing nag champa incense. I like it very much. After a while – yep, this is really, really nice. It's warm but light and airy but sweet. Most certainly considering a bottle. This is the closest thing to wearing nag champa incense that I've encountered.

First sniff – exactly as I imagined. Very sweet and creamy with equally strong and compelling florals. There's something in here that almost reminds me of coconut, like a sweetness you can bite into. Makes me think of a more mature and glamorous version of snow white. Testing – it does end up being a lot like snow white. Not able to distinguish itself enough to make me want a bottle, but very pretty.

This scent reminds me a lot of Tezcatlipoca, but with a strange undertone of vitamins. Even though leather isn't listed in the notes, it seems to have a chocolate and leather feel to it.

I just got my decant in the mail and misted just a bit on my sweater. The scent reminds me a lot of a sprayable form of Haunted. I think the similarity is the dark sweet musks and amber. Reads very much like a black musk/amber hybrid. The vanilla isn't pronounced, it just keeps things on the sweet side from the background. The scent is pretty much as one would expect from the note list, if ambery musks are your thing, this is your atmo spray.

Fallen Angels in Hell, John Martin. Infernal red amber, scorched frankincense, damiana, red ginger, bloodroot, cayenne, and sulphur. Sniffing from my decant I get a strong impression of ginger. Particularly the kind of ginger that tends to not appeal to me until it gets on my skin (as in Inextinguishable Hatred - which I love) it's a bit overwhelming and sharp. But I've found that giving this wild ginger a chance to get skin contact makes all the difference in the world. Such is the case here. Skin Testing – yes, it goes on strongly ginger, but within moments a transformation starts to happen. Fallen Angels in Hell goes right into smelling lovely and resinous. Frankincense steps right up and dances with the ginger, taking the lead. There's a bit of spice lingering around the ginger giving it a twist, cayenne I would suppose from the listed notes, but probably wouldn't have guessed otherwise. There's a lovely balance happening between the roundness of the frankincense with the red amber supporting it and warmly spiced ginger. Personally I don't detect sulpher at any time, nor do I get a 'scorched' feel from this scent. On my skin this turns into a dominantly frankincense scent, but the ginger tweak really makes it interesting and sets it apart from other ginger blends and other resinous blends. I love both of those genres, so this is quite a hit with me.

I get a custardy, vanilla, honey, powder from this scent. Not too powdery, not too foody. I'm in love, so glad to have a bottle. Smells pretty much exactly like Lush's Silky Underwear perfume (I've never smelled the powder).

Wet on my skin. I smell like I have been rolling in celery. This is an unusual interpretation of a resinous blend, usually I associate amber and frankincense with being anchors, but this blend plays out a little differently. The frankincense is lending a hint of sweetness and holding its own among the higher and airy notes of the galbanum. I have the SN galbanum, and it is definitely a feature here. The other notes play supporting, rounding, softening roles to the galbanums sharp, green somewhat piercing starring role.

A very light, almost honeyed smelling vanilla with a beautifully subtle hint of earthyness. Absolutely gorgeous, but fades so fast off of my skin that it's just depressing.

Very appealing in the decant and when first applied to the skin. I love the champaca. It's kind of starting to smell like vitamins. I think it's the vetiver. Ah, the champaca comes back after a brief stint of vetiver. It's lightly incensy, in an airy, almost fruity way, but with a bit of dirty depth to it. Dries down to... it's nice, but didn't make a strong impression on me either way. It's a pleasant scent, but I'm not in love.

Smells fantastically pine pitch and wonderful in the decant, on my skin after a while it just goes straight to oakmoss and stays there being loud and oakmossy.

This is the surprise hit of my Philharmonic decants. In the decant it seems kind of jumbled and not too promising. On my skin the red musk, myrrh and tobacco form a pleasant red musky-incense sort of smell which is pretty nice. When I stuck my wrist under my partners nose he says it smells like walking into a hippy occult shop, which is a nice association for both of us, I agree. The red musk stays mellow and soft without going powdery and the geranium doesn't amp up crazy. Everything stays really nicely balanced and just smells incensy and wonderful. This is the bottle purchase out of the bunch.

In the decant, mostly incensey plum. On the skin the pine really pops out first and is nicely backed up with some tart sweetness. I assume the tart floral counterpart is the geranium, but the tobacco absolute is playing a part in rounding it out, which makes it distinctive. The tobacco seems to be pushing forward, which is fine because I like it. It ends up smelling very much like a sweet chewy tobacco with the feeling of opium, which I mean as a rich, hazy, musky sort of scent with a sharp edge to it. The tobacco and hazy musk become so intense and sweet that the scent has become cloying and just too much for me after a little while. Reading my own review I would buy this scent, but actually experiencing it, it was just too sweet and too loud. One of those scents I think I would rather get a whiff of off of someone else rather than be in the middle of it all day long.

I smell mostly cedar and sweet lavender with just a touch of pine at the start. It has a fresh, natural, effortless sort of feel to it. I'm not sure if my hair routine has changed or if it's this gloss, but it seems just a little heavier than the others I've tried. I wish my hair wasn't so fine and oily, this smells so fantastic I would love to load up my hair with Shiny Furball.

A savage, dark, lurid scent: blackened woods, pomegranate rind, mossy earth, mimosa, and thick, black wine. In the bottle I'm getting mostly the earth and a feeling of sweet and rich red fruit, which must be the wine and pomegranate. On my skin the woods and moss come forward much more and this turns into a beautiful dark forest scent. Very lovely and exactly what I was hoping for. ~ It's been about four months and I wanted to update my review to add that this blend is aging beautifully. It's developed into a very rich earthy (but not dirty) scent with a rich depth to it. The pom and the wine have really mellowed out and lost the superficial red fruit and boozy wine vibe and taken on more of a velvet burgundy feeling. There's a bit of soft spice and woods here as well. I think that once people catch on to how well this ages it will become more sought after.

Lavender with tobacco, zdravetz, Haitian vetiver, and blue lotus absolute. I can only smell lavender. It's very nice lavender (not too sharp, not too sweet), but the vetiver, tobacco, and lotus are MIA as far as I can tell. I had no idea what zdravetz was, here's what I found: Zdravetz, Geranium macrorhizum, referred to as true geranium, has a strong floral aroma. It, however, has been used extensively in Bulgaria where it is known for its aphrodisiac properties and for its balancing effects on female hormones. Zdravetz is said to lower blood sugar.

I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep. At length lassitude succeeded to the tumult I had before endured, and I threw myself on the bed in my clothes, endeavouring to seek a few moments of forgetfulness. But it was in vain; I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch –the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited, where I remained during the rest of the night, walking up and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life. Breathless horror: icy white musk and thick olibanum with niaouli, carrot seed, white mint, and camphor. This scent is so mild that I'm initially having a hard time getting a sense of it. What I can smell is a slightly sweet, mildly earthy effect of the carrot seed. What I'm NOT getting is white musk, white mint or camphor. Honestly it's making me think of when I had a rabbit, something to do with the faint scent of wood chip bedding and food mix. I wish I could describe this better because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea, this is very gentle, healthy, natural, barely sweet, and earthy in a sort of grainy way. The more I smell it, the more I love it.

I agree with those who get a feeling of benzoin in this blend, there's a sweet bite to it that isn't the vanilla or the frankincense. Generally I'm getting sweet vanilla with a sort of airy-light version of frankincense. It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere spray House of Unquenchable Fire due to the common notes. I love the spray and I love having a similar scent to wear. I wish it lasted a little longer on my skin, but sometimes it's just like that. I'll try it in a scent locket to see if that keeps it around longer, but ultimately the scent is so lovely that I'm perfectly fine with just reapplying more often.

THE MADWOMAN In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face. —Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte Dusty white sandalwood, ragged cloth, and a dry, long-dead bridal bouquet. This is a very appealing sandalwood scent. It reminds me of the sandalwood fans I sometimes see in import stores. Along with that there's a floral that feels clean and bright to me, or maybe it's how the floral interacts with the cloth note which seems maybe like linen. I'm not sure what's in the bridal bouquet but it doesn't seem to be roses or lilies - I get the feeling of a sort of pleasant sweet kind of flower, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. This scent is unusual enough to hold my interest but I think it's also innocuous enough to fit a variety of moods and occasions. ~edit for spelling

I think I remember being not too interested when this first came out but then I got a decant from someone and fell in love. It reminds me almost exactly of the Mlle Lilith Fortune Teller perfume. Very similar incense and pom. Mlle Lilith is one of my favorites and having this spray is simply fantastic. I'm just sad that I only have one bottle.

I'm really enjoying Liz. Starts out with spring like flowers and sweet vanilla. The flowers fade to the background and the vanilla and leather mix into a sweet feminine leather. Then the smoke comes forward and mixes with the sweet leather and just hangs on being subtly girly and sexy at the same time. Fantastic scent story and wonderful fragrance. I'm very happy to have this bottle.

My thanks to arsinoe9 and BoneBone24 for the great suggestions. I like the take on the inviting aspect of being a receptionist with the tea notes. I actually like and have all of those scents I think. I'm really comfortable in Dorian and I'm head over heels for Ambergris SN, it makes me feel like a classy lady. Hmmmmm.... thanks again for the ideas!

I will be interviewing at an environmental law firm for a receptionist position. I wear BPAL every day and wouldn't quite feel right without it. I would like a scent that comes across as competent, confident, and professional. The kind of person you would trust to greet fancy guests at the door and to make sure all the lunch orders are correct. This isn't usually the kind of thing I'm thinking of when I'm sniffing, so I'm at somewhat at a loss. Help?

This is the decant I was most looking forward to. I love all of the listed notes and almost got a bottle unsniffed because I felt so confident it would work. The initial pungent ginger doesn't throw me off because it's similar-ish to how other strong gingers start out, so I'm ok there. Unfortunately though the sharp ginger edges are only made sharper by the pepper and clove and given a sort of sour or spoiled aspect with the jasmine (I do often enjoy jasmine) and then charred by the vetiver. It is certainly thematic, but it is not pleasant for me to wear. The scent remains charred, sharp, sour and pungent during the dry down and by the time it's fully dry I'm sick of smelling it. I love the idea of this combination of notes, the execution was just a bit too on the nose. Wear this to inflict your inner dragon on those around you.

I think this might be an unusual view, but for me Humpback Whale was the hit of this update. I love mint notes in the snow blends, the snowy minty floral of the (discontinued) Macabray, and the dirty minty pennyroyal in Mad Hatter but do not have as much love for some of the Lick It blends because I find them a bit too stark. Humpback whale starts off bracingly minty with a bit of snow complexity and ends up a multi-dimensional ambergris. It's a fascinatingly beautiful and complex blend that is gorgeous from top to bottom. It will certainly be in heavy rotation this summer.