Invidiana

This reminds me very much of how Sacrifice ended up on me; raging cedar and manly De Sade-esque leather. I really can't pick out the other elements because those two amp so strongly on me. I do imagine it would be sexy on the right guy, meaning one who doesn't turn it to hamstercage cedar like I do.

There was some hope for this in the beginning from the syrupy black fig backed by the resins; however, as it dries down a lemony green tea plus a strong carnation dominate with a bit of smoky vetiver in the background. That shouldn't really be a surprise to me since I amp both carnation and anything remotely lemony. Ah well.

Oh, cedar, even when you're white you don't give up until you trample everything else to death. I barely even get to smell the Eastern musk, which was what I was most looking forward to; I get about 90% screaming CEDAR and a sprinkling of spikenard, mint and petitgrain. I had to expel Apatrophia from my wrist faster than she expels sinful lusts.

This started out very promising; lots of dark, sweet rum reminiscent of the booze in Banned in Boston with additional depth from the musks and resins and smokiness from the vetiver and guiacwood. However, after a minute or so something starts to go off and give it this odd lemony overtone and I have no idea what's doing it. I'm guessing it's the combination of two or more of the components on my skin, because I'm pretty sure none of them does it on me alone. Ah well, I'll always have my Banned.

I don't know what happened with this. I was especting a lot of red musk, black cherry and dragon's blood but instead got blasting red rose with only a bit of a berry and rosemary undertone. My skin should have amped my favorite elements in this but for some reason it didn't. Iz confuzd.

Here we go again with the lemon verbena. Behind it I can sense some lovely rich golden honeycomb with hints of anise and tea, but the verbena is just so LOUD on me it drowns them out. So sad.

I had such high hopes for this because I love wisteria, but on my skin the lemongrass basically strangles it and all the other elements. I can tell there's a really pretty spring floral underneath all the deathly sharp lemongrass, but it's been trampled beyond recognition.

Remember those 90s Herbal Essences commercials, "she has the urge to herbal"? Obviously my skin had an urge to herbal with Festival Mask because all it lets me get is stomping sage and bitter tea leaf with bits of citrus and patchouli somewhere in there wishing they could make their presence known. The amber and flowers didn't even stand a chance over the sage amping so much. I wanted to love this because I have a thing for masks, but all my chemistry wanted to do was herbal.

Oh GAH GERANIUM. Without that blasted flower I imagine I would have loved this. Sadly not only can I not stand rose geranium in any way shape or form but I amp it like they amp techno on Jersey Shore. Basically wet this is peach and rose geranium, and dries down to mostly rose geranium with something sweet struggling to break out of the background. Gah.

Yay, my second winner of the Shungas! I get a lot of soft, creamy coconut and warmly nutty hazelnut on a bed of slightly sweet and musky white amber, with just a hint of anise to finish. This isn't an in-your-face herbal anise scent at all. It's actually rather comforting.

Something with apple blossom that doesn't go to cheap floral soap on me. This really is a miracle. Nymphia was really a pleasant surprise. I was expecting my skin to produce some nasty combination of cloying mango and cheap floral soap out of it; instead, I get this lovely airy spring floral with some juiciness from the mango and exotic creaminess from the coconut, plus a yummy candylike quality from the spun sugar. The lavender touches it with a dreamy effect that I can imagine evokes a bride or wedding day. Thankfully I barely get the cucumber; just a hint of something cool but not cucumber per se. Really odd how one I really expected to fail worked so splendidly; bottleworthy for sure!

Okay, Copulating Mice wins the award for weirdest scent memory trigger to date. The way my skin perverts this scent it turns into the smell inside this old house we used to rent; a dusty woody mothball-ridden smell with faded air freshener. I really don't get it, because this should have been creamy and nutty on me as others have described it, not dusty and bitter, even chemical. Sad.

I wa really excited when I saw aquatics and olibanum because it seemed like this would be Falling Leaf Moon's springtime cousin; I also love oude and davana. Unfortuantely something here doesn't quite cooperate and it ends up smelling like...salty rosewater. Now I'm crying endless tears.

This is not verbena lemon, lemongrass lemon, lemon rind lemon, cough drop lemon, or lemon cleaner lemon. This is LEMONADE lemon! Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat is like a really good lemonade, the kind made with real lemons and real sugar, none of that artificial stuff. It's as if the sugar is vanilla sugar too; either there's a tinge of vanilla somewhere or something vanillic in the "icy" part (I've noticed there is in other "icy" BPALs). It's summery love in a bottle!

Actually this didn't turn out as strange as I thought. I don't really get the tomato note; it probably just adds a tang to the blend but doesn't come out screaming tomato. It's mostly mango on me, with the tartness of the tomato and a bit of earthiness from the fig for balance, but apparently I'm amping the mango loud and clear. Surprisingly I get barely any red musk! This is a real shock because I would expect to amp that over everything, but there's only a trace of it on the drydown. Strange.

I was hoping this would be a really full-bodied rose blend on me like Pothon Meter or Harlot v2, but I amp this rose to the point that it's mostly red rose with a hint of tart redcurrant. I was really hoping for a rich resinous background like that in the Harlot proto but it seems that rose is all my chemistry is going to give me with this one.

Vanillaaa, where are you? Wherever the vanilla is--and I normally amp the stuff!--I can't pick it out because some ghastly cat pee jasmine, as BPAL jasmine often turns out on my skin, and sneezy honeysuckle stomp all over it. If it wasn't for those two partners in crime I think I would have been in love with this.

I'm kind of split on this one. I really had high hopes, but I mostly get a one-sided leather and clove with a bit of sandalwood. I'm not really surprised about the clove because I do tend to amp it, but I'm going to give it a second try before my final verdict.

This makes me drift away to a happy place. It's very soft and dreamy, like lying down on fresh white sheets in gentle sunlight, though there's no linen note in here. I can amp orris to a high degree sometimes but it stays subdued enough, and I think it's the soft coconut and cherry blossom that create that dreamy feeling. The sandalwood is ethereal and slightly musky as sandalwood often tends to dry down on me, and a gentle sweetness is added by the honey. It's one of the--count 'em--three winners out of my sea of Lupercalia decants. Those don't include the handful of bottles I was positive enough about to spring for unsniffed, of course.

This is one I couldn't really wear as perfume but can definitely see as an autumnal room spray. It's really warm and enveloping from teh hay and oakmoss with some resinous sweetness and further warmth from the skin musk. The mint is only there for a split second once it hits my skin. This is actually something that's quite comforting to smell; I'd just rather have it around me than on me because it seems like more of an atmosphere thing. If something similar without the mint appears in the autumn room sprays I'll be overjoyed!

This is very woody; not the kind of cabinet-store woody I got from the original Bony Moon, but more of a soft, inoffensive perfumy wood, reminiscent of something antique and wooden, with some sweetness from the red apple. I do tend to amp red apple but I also amp woods strongly and the woods are winning out over the apple here. I can appreciate the concept but it isn't personally my type of fragrance.

This is another one that should have worked by all accounts but completely flopped with my chemistry. Despite my penchant for amping resins I hardly got any benzoin or galbanum for some reason and ended up with predominant oakmoss and a bit of mint and something faintly citrusy and tart from the blood orange and blackcurrant. There is a hint of patchouli in there somewhere, but very faint. Nikephoros should have been a win on me much like its name, but sadly it wasn't. I don't understand my skin.

Alas this is way too cologney for me. That said, however, it is something I imagine to be total sex on a guy. It's not really a "red" scent though the fact that it is dominated by a red chypre gives it a little more warmth than your typical greenish type of chypre. I also like the boyfriend's-tshirt-feel of the linen element, and then the musk to add a nice hit of masculine sensuality. I'm going to keep my decant around and see if I have any success with a male specimen.

Oh, my friend lemongrass, why must you always RUIN perfectly good blends for me? Because the other ingredients are some of my favorites I had high hopes that blasted herb would just sit quietly in the background like I told it to but no such luck. As always, I amped it to the point that I could really only smell lemongrass death with tiny hints of lavender and some sweetness from the balsam and honey. Curse you lemongrass.

By all accounts this should have been beautiful on me but something in here just doesn't do it. I barely get any black currant, white musk or honey, just what translates on my skin as a sharp and dry combination of tangerine peel and tagetes. Oh boo.