Invidiana

I'd marry this stuff if I could. Seriously. I'm a huge insomniac, and IT HELPS ME SLEEP! It's the perfect balance of fluffy candy and fabric softener, and to my nose that is a very good thing. I've always been fond of fabric softener scents especially when I want to relax. It's so calming and uplifting at the same time, it gives me the feeling of soaring on a bright clear day under a soft blue sky, soaring into dreamland, buoyed on magical clouds of fresh sweetness. I know I sound like I'm babbling nonsense but I tend to be really anxious and stressed much of the time and have trouble unwinding, and both this and Sakura act as aromatherapy for me in the literal sense of the word. Never mind that two spritzes on my bed last for days. Now excuse me while I go hypnotize Puddin into making an endless supply....

I took a chance on this with the hopes that it would take the same lucky turn Lord Ruthven did and end up being all sweet, almost berry-ish blood accord and a hint of leather, grasses and woods in the background. My cedar-amping skin begged to differ. On me it dries down into almost all cedar, really sharp and masculine cedar, exactly like those cedar chips you use around the trees and bushes on your lawn. The leather is not a soft leather either; it's a dusty, dry, De Sade-style leather that, like De Sade, is just way too overtly masculine for me. The blood accord shows up for a short time during the drydown until it's swallowed almost entirely by the cedar (this is sadly the extent to which my skin amps the stuff) and it's not the berry-like stuff in Lord Ruthven but a real true-to-life tangy metallic blood scent that isn't sweet at all and again really falls more into the more masculine category. Everything else struggles to show up when this hits my skin, but the final drydown is trumped by the cedar. I wanted to love this so badly because of the vampire theme, but unfortunately this vampire really bit a chunk out of me. I just have to deal with the fact that I don't have much luck with BPAL's cedar, period.

This is a lovely soft, soothing fragrance that makes me feel as if I'm falling asleep in a sun-warmed grove of cherry trees in bloom. Now I'm a highly stressed person--I joke that I'm not only a sufferer but a carrier of stress--and it really helps me unwind, especially at bedtime. It seems so uncharacteristic of me, with my horde of dark and/or foody scents, that I'd fall for a floral like this, but it's just so comforting that I have. It's not a screeching floral at all either, more of a cuddly floral with berrylike hints from the cherry blossom. My mother can't stand it, but the room it lives in isn't hers after all.

First of all, many thanks to Lilith Lemourne for the generous sniffie of this. Unfortunately my skin had something different to say. I'm jumping into the barrel with Devilot on this one with the plasticky drydown; it smelled so deceptively promising in the vial, thick and rich and sweet and buttery, and managed to stay that way a few moments when wet. And then the horror began: plastic and burnt butter. Not burnt sugar like the crust of a creme brulee, just straight-up burnt butter microwaved in a plastic bowl. I kid you not, that is exactly what my chemistry turned this beautiful blend into, and it only kept veering more and more into that territory the further it dried down with any remaining sweetness fading more and more until it was nothing but plastic and burnt butter. It really threw me because I usually tend to do very well with the Lab's cream notes.

First the good news: this didn't hate me as much as Milk Moon 07. Now the bad news: it still hated me. It smelled promising in the bottle, sweet and creamy, but a few seconds on my sin and it started to take on that telltale Milk Moon 07 smell of rancid fruit and spoiled milk. It really confuses me because most of the Lab's milk and cream notes do very well on my skin, but something in both Milk Moons just doesn't work.

First of all, a huge thanks to the insanely generous CTFrancesca for the sniffie of this. It's a gorgeous soft honey that is just sweet enough and really blooms on the drydown, with a warmth reminiscent of being bathed in gentle sunbeams. I love it, and could definitely justify splurging on a bottle if one ever shows up, but if that never happens for me or anyone else who's fallen in love with this it's actually very similar to Ov5, which is the more honey-heavy O proto.

This is gorgeously tropical on me. There is a slight licorice tinge wet, but as it dries down the licorice fades and I get the honey, ginger cream and coconut the most. For once I'm not amping clove to the point of it turning into a spice cabinet, and the cinnamon is just a whisper. The amber and sandalwood add further depth and sensuality. This is sexy and exotic and reminds me a lot of my formerly beloved Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess (which I wore before I discovered perfume oils even though the alcohol in most commercial perfumes makes me break out in hives), only better. I will definitely need at least one more bottle before it's gone, no question.

I love this one. They say durian is supposed to smell like the amped-up version of sweat socks, but I get no such thing here. Straight out of the bottle and all through the drydown it remains the same lovely custardy cream and honey with a delightful shot of brandy; not incredibly boozy, just well rounded out. I'll definitely need a backup of this; if it's already this good now, I can't wait to see what it will be in another year.

Wet this seems like an herbal minty honey, which really isn't my thing, but it completely morphs as it dries down; the herbal quality thankfully fades pretty quickly and leaves a creamy vanilla-mint type scent in its place, and when that blends with the honey it reminds me of the honeyed version of after-dinner mints. I don't really go for minty scents during the summer so much, but I can definitely see it being a wintertime favorite.

Wet this seems to be all fresh tomato and tomato leaf--not what I was expecting at all, and definitely not my type of scent. However, it does change as it dries down; the honey takes over and the sharp tomato/vine scent turns into a tangy berry that resembles red currant. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stand the initial tomato stage; I'll have to see how this ages.

Wow, I must have very different chemistry from the other two--on me this is tangy honey and lime! An unexpected but delicious combination, and it's truly an infused honey with the thick golden honey being the dominant note and the lime-like tang of the yew berry as an accent. However, I do amp sweeter notes most of the time, so others may get a different ratio on the drydown.

This is gorgeous. Some of BPAL's black musks turn plasticky on me, but this one is a real exception. It's shadowy, smooth and slightly sweet, and the notes that support it are just as beautiful. The resins really deepen the musk and add mystery, with the benzoin giving it a tinge of vanilla. The black ginger is just so sensual; combined with the champaca flower it lends a really exotic feel to this, like midnight in an exotic forest. I don't really get much of a licorice feel from the anise; it's somewhere there adding to the "black" feel but not prominent. Panther Moon has a very Snake Charmer feel about it, like Snake Charmer's darker and more sinister cousin.

This is the perfect combination of what comes out on me as honey and otherworldly air. I don't know any other way to describe it. I think the nicotiana is what is giving it the hazy feel with the chamomile not screaming out it's there but still contributing to the dreamlike quality. As it dries down more and more, the honey becomes more dominant, anchored by the cistus resin which gives it more depth but still retains the hazy and mysterious background. Smelling it makes me feel like I've stepped through a portal to another realm much like Door does in the book.

This is divine. Leather can sometimes be too manly on me, but this is a soft, feminine leather that provides a backdrop for the gorgeous amber, vanilla and tonka. I definitely recognize this as the vanilla (or one of the vanillas) from Snake Oil, and I love Snake Oil so that makes it even better. It's a creamy vanilla, not necesarily foody but just creamy and sensual. As it keeps drying down the vanilla amps and the amber and tonka add warmth and depth. The leather doesn't disappear, but just remains gentle in the background. I don't really get much moss or clay, but they are probably adding to the depth factor. This is just gorgeous and I'm so glad I risked two bottles of it unsniffed.

This is okay, but not the thick raw honey I was expecting even though I usually amp honey. I didn't really get the exotic gardenia or ginger either; what I got was jasmine, thyme, and very light honey, in that order. Surprisingly this wasn't a cat-pee jasmine on me, but that may be because something else in the blend tempered it. It's good for those who like their honey on the light side and can tolerate an herbal background, but I vastly prefer Hony Mone.

Sex in a fish-shaped kite=disaster, at least on my skin. I don't get cranberry. I don't get red currant. I get straight-up LEMON VERBENA (?!?!) which must be that blasted thyme reacting with something and I'm not sure what but it's insanely sharp. Probably the thyme and mint together reacting with the fruit turn into lemon verbena on me. Lovely. And if that isn't enough, I amp cedar to eleven and that starts revealing its hypermasculine self in a couple of seconds--and before any more damage was done, I scrubbed it off.

This is a fresh and very true seaspray scent. It really comes out like a seaspray single note on me, with a very light floral background and a hint of wood, but mostly salty seaspray. It's personally not my type of thing; I much prefer Giant Squid for my sea scent because of the citrus and resins, but if you're a lover of straight-up seaspray you can't pass this up.

I really lucked out with this one because 99.9999% of the time carnation is The Great and Illustrious Carnation of Doom to be Feared on me. Fortunately something happens in this blend--maybe the fact that it's pink carnation, maybe the mixing with the phlox and/or sugar, the proportion of phlox to carnation, the type of sugar, who knows--that turns it into something reminiscent of Necco wafers on me. It also helps that I amp the sugar. I love the sweet and slightly spicy smell of old-fashioned candy, and if that's what this carnation decides to parade around as on me, it's a keeper.

I can honestly say this is the first blend inspired by a male character which actually doesn't go to straight man on me. In fact, it's sweet, resinous, dark and downright sexy. It's boozier wet, but the booze calms down pretty quickly; this is sweet booze, not dry or overly alcoholic booze. The lovely opium really amps on me as well and just gives it this air of decadence and debauchery, making me think of 19th-Century New Orleans in Anne Rice's novels. The leather is soft and behaves in the background, the bark miraculously doesn't amp into Bark of Dry Death like in Tiki King, and I don't get anything dusty from the wool note. This is everything I wanted De Sade to be and more. I forced myself to hold back on a lot of the Neverwhere, Ireedeemable and Witchblade scents at C2 for the sake of my bank account, but I absolutely could not resist snapping up a bottle of this one.

Well, this epic scent turned out to be an epic fail on me as I found out at the C2 MnS. I've come to the conclusion that there is a certain type of cardamom and a certain type of musk that don't like me to a high enough degree as it is on their own and really hate me to death when teamed up. They did it in Enraged Groundhog Musk and now they did it in this. In fact, the drydown of this is the spitting image of the drydown of Enraged Groundhog Musk was on my skin. Smelling it in the bottle I could definitely tell there was a ribbon of cakey vanilla in there, but on my skin it disappears in all of a fraction of a second when whatever this musk is and whatever this cardamom is band together and turn it into an overwhelmingly plasticky type of thing with a rancid nutty undertone that is actually pretty nausea-inducing. I'm glad I tested it on my ankle too, because the stuff is damn strong too and would have made me sick wafting up to my nostrils from my wrist the rest of the day. Thankfully it was Love's Philosophy that was doing that. So long, Storyville.

This is a lovely creamy vanilla underscored with just the right amount of sexiness from the saffron. The vanilla is more buttery wet, but mellows out to a gorgeous vanilla cream. There's really nothing more to say, it's simple but simply beautiful.

Of course, another BPAL cakegasm. This really is exactly what it says it is: I get that tiny hint of cocoa from the red velvet cake, thick buttery vanilla cream and sticky blackberry gloop. Simply put and simply delicious. Something in this was ringing a bell from the moment I put it on, and I couldn't place it until I finally realized it must be the vanilla from Underpants! It's definitely the same vanilla note in Underpants, which becomes a lot more evident on the drydown. It also has the staying power of Underpants; I'm going on 8 hours straight right now with no touch-ups yet!

I tried this at the MnS and it was just one epic fail right after another on me, and the amber could do nothing to save it. Whatever musk this is, it's extremely similar to Reptoid Dominion--the Musk of Doom in Hunter Moon 07 and Ivanushka that turns to straight powder on me, but more pungent to a power of ten. So basically my skin turns this to Coty powder and cat pee. Lovely.

I had to test this twice to really get an accurate impression, because after testing a bunch of sweet scents the first time it seemed very off. The second time, though, (after really huffing the coffee beans the Lab thankfully provided) I could really appreciate it as an odd but nevertheless complex and even strangely sexy scent. In the bottle it's like ginger ale of all things, and wet on my skin it's basically ginger ale over asphalt. It was going to go one of two ways, but it ended up taking a turn for the positive. Surprisingly the smoke/cinders/scorched wood/singed bone notes, which must contain vetiver somewhere, don't amp to the point of being utterly manly on me but actually provide a tempered smoky base for the tar and blood accord. There must be pine tar in this, because my skin sweetens that up, and along with the blood accord it saved the day; I amped both enough for the scorched stuff to behave, and while there's still a ginger ale undercurrent it's pleasant for me because I like ginger ale. It's an unexpectedly sensual scent once it's fully dried down and really growing on me. If you like Inganok Jewelers, give this one a try.

This is the only, and I mean the only, one of the Black Helicopters which played nice with my skin. Lemongrass is usually a death note for me because I tend to amp it to eleven, but in this case the fact that it is blended with citron and that the spun sugar battled them both to no avail resulted in a very pleasant lemonade cotton candy scent on me. It is very lemony in the bottle and wet; as it dries down the spun sugar note takes over, and on the further drydown the white amber and musk soften it and prevent it from going into cloying territory. Thankfully I don't get any funny chemical undertones; if anything maybe those components also have a hand in keeping the lemongrass in check.