fairestrocza

That gasoline comment from the first review kinda got it my head and stayed there. I wonder how my impressions would have changed with out that little tidbit in my head. Wet: Yup, something automotive, but oddly compelling nonetheless. On Skin: Starts out the same as the imp smell, and I start to wonder if I really need perfume that achieves a scent I can get just by helping the husbeast with his car. But then that harsh wet note starts to fade, and I start to smell something vegetative that I can only assume is the rhododendron. A bit more time passes, and ... holy bpal, it smells exactly like rocks. There is a wall of purple shale in one of our canyons, and at the top of the wall there are some awesome (if you're a geo-geek) boulders with glacial striations. This is the scent that gets stuck in my nose scrambling up and down the 'path' to the top of the shale wall. A bit more time passes, and this starts to remind me of a harsher Staged Moon Landing. ... and finally, a bit of ozone emerges, but I can only assume that this is how ozone is supposed to smell on people with the right chemistry, because I think this is the first time that it hasn't amped to take over a blend. Three Swords will need a full day test on pulse-points before I make a final judgement, but in spite of my trepidation smelling this in the imp, I am glad I took a chance on it. I will definitely hang on to the decant for the scent experience aspect. I asked my husband to sniff me (without telling him anything about it), and he said "Is that sand? Or maybe silica?" He worked in the oil fields for a while, and when I asked about the 'gasoline' that people have mentioned, he agreed that maybe that is why he associated the scent with sand/silica, but he thought the smell was closer to an engine additive or fuel injector cleaner, though he could see where people might get a petroleum impression.

I should have known that this one would be a no-go for me. Snow-capped Mountain Air = ozone = soap and/or dryer sheets on me. I was hoping that the other notes would ground it, and on the skin it does warm up a bit, but only to the point of warm-from-the-dryer dryer sheets rather than fresh-from-the-box dryer sheets. If I inhale very deeply, I can get a faint hint of the trees, but my skin just likes to take the ozone notes and amp them to the tops of those snow-capped peaks. eta - after several hours, the ozone starts to back off and I get some sweetness, which is nice, but still not worth fighting with the ozone.

I was hoping that Waves of Mist would have the same ethereal quality as Silver Phoenix and Staged Moon Landing (both of which share some notes), but no such luck. I can smell the lily-of-the-valley, and while it is behaving better than lilies usually do, it is a little too prominent for my taste. The orris, which is generally one of my favorite notes, is doing its violet impression, rather than the soft powdery version that I prefer. It is a touch aquatic, but not ozone-ish. The white musk isn't too high pitched in this blend. All in all, it is a nice scent, but not what I was hoping for.

I tested this decant again without referring to the notes at first, and when I did look them up, I was very surprised. Volt basically smells like Well-Groomed-Man - I think it must be the lime that I'm picking up and associating with a shaving gel my dad used to use. I do not detect any leather, although it might be what gives this a warmer feel than I would expect from the other listed notes. I do not get any of the nose-clearing or tingling sensation that I generally associate with mint or eucalyptus. I didn't take notes back when I first tried this imp, but to my recollection, I like it a lot more now that it has some age to it. It is not a very *me* scent, but I can't wait to put it on my husband, and maybe even get him a bottle.

Tin Foil Hat starts out as ozone and citrus (similar to Lightning), but with a little something extra. It eventually develops an aquatic aspect. I loved the Black Helicopters Over Black Phoenix line, and I'll hang on to one imp because even though it isn't my usual style, it is a nice clean scent on me. (And, just in case, I wouldn't want to be caught without my Tin Foil Hat).

I've had this decant since the Pom Patch came out, but could never quite wrap my mind around it enough to do a review. On me, it is mainly pomegranate, lavender, and a third note that I assume by process of elimination is either tamarind or sugar date. I periodically get a hint of woodiness. Clove and myrrh are absent. Overall, I am fairly indifferent to this one. I don't love it, don't hate it, and probably don't need it.

Iranian Galbanum is fresh and earthy at the same time; very herbal, with a touch of sweetness on the drydown. It reminds me of the scent of grey/green fuzzy stems, crushed underfoot on a hike in the mountains. I don't think I would ever wear this alone, but it is fantastic for nose-education purposes. I can now sense the role it plays in some of the blends that I like, and I think Galbanum has some definite potential for layering. I find it fascinating that it is present in such divergent scents as Black Tower, Penis Admiration, Staged Moon Landing, and Aperotos Eros. None of those scents have a strong Galbanum presence up front, but I can sense it in the background, and it seems to give each of those blends a little lift. I'm glad I picked up a bottle of this one.

Quietude starts out with a nice lavender backed by a hint of citrus. Unfortunately, the dry down leaves me with a somewhat stale/flat smelling lavender. There are better choices for my lavender fix.

Jester starts out very juicy. It has a much stronger throw than I generally expect for this type of blend. There is a candy-ish, little girl feel. After a while, it fades in and out of chapstick territory. ... and then *poof* it disappears. Glad I had a chance to try this one, but happy that I won't have to track down more.

My first thought would be to look at the common notes in the blends that don't work (tobacco? orchid?). But also keep in mind that different variants of note types may react in different ways on your skin. For example, I *adore* red musk, but skin musk generally turns into stale b.o. on me. Blood musk is hit or miss. The more you experiment, the better you will get at picking out scents. When there are unfamiliar notes in blends (or familiar notes that I'm just not experienced enough to pick out of a blend), I like to use the search function to find a list of blends that contain the given note. That has helped me identify several death notes and several favorites. (Of course, that approach will work better once you have some testing under your belt). Good luck!

The amber in this is gorgeous. It grounds what might otherwise be too ethereal with its powdery light florals. Very feminine. At times I just adore this scent. At other times, it goes a bit sour on me (probably one of the floral notes and/or the myrrh being naughty).

In the Bottle: Not quite campfire marshmallows, but I can see how it would give that impression. On the skin: I get tantalizing hints of how this is supposed to smell on someone with the right chemistry, but it goes oddly ...aquatic?... on me somehow. I never get the cinnamon that others have mentioned. I thought some aging might help (I got this from the lab shortly after it was released) but it still isn't quite right on me.

This is such an unusual blend, unlike any other BPAL scent I've sniffed. I can pick out hints of all the notes, but nothing seems to stick out in front of the others. It ends up being more woody than I would have expected from the notes. I want to love it, but it ends up being a bit too dry for me, and I have to face it - I just don't like myrrh. I find this to be fairly unisex, with medium throw and good lasting power. I love the bottle art.

This was definitely the wrong month to try to be reserved with Lunacy buys. I picked up a bottle for a friend, and decided that a decant would be good enough for me. I was so wrong. This is the second Beaver Moon I've tried (the other being the lavender/honey variety). 2011 was good, but 2012 is *amazing.* It starts with a blast of warm, yummy cheesecake. After it dries, there is a brief spice-amping period, and then it is back to cheesecake with a hint of apples. It is long-lasting, and has decent throw, but not so much to announce to the world "HI, I'm Scented!" I wore some to bed last night, and it took me a bit longer than usual to fall asleep because I had to keep sniffing my arms. When I woke up this morning, my first thought was, "what smells so good?" It turns out that both my arms and my pillow had lingering traces of yummy apple cheesecake. I wish I'd purchased an entire bottle for myself.

(2012 version) I was happily surprised by this one. Roses and lilies are generally Flowers of Doom, but here they are muted enough to be unnoticeable. I catch hints of the 'child's perfume,' over a gentle floral (mainly violet) and vanilla-sandalwood scent. If the violet had been orris instead (the difference is subtle but important for me), I would have grabbed a bottle in a heart beat, but as things stand, I think I'll have to bump this off the bottle list in favor of scents I know I'll wear more often.

Creepy and desolate. It feels somehow incomplete, which fits the description quite well, but makes this unwearable for me.

In the decant, it smells like fresh-from-the-dryer laundry and ironed shirts. On the skin, it is all ozone and aquatics on me, with a hint of Clean Man Smell. Definitely not what I expected. More than anything, this smells like my dad getting ready to go out to a dinner party. A nice scent memory, but not something I need as a perfume.

It fits the description fairly well. Unfortunately, that is bad news for my skin. It starts out mainly as cologne, then heads toward the tobacco and opium notes. Feels very masculine. Definitely not my style.

Sweet, bordering on cloying. Something sharp is present, but I don't smell it so much as feel it at the back of my throat. Too floral for me. It smells like Grandma went to the altar, but forgot to bring half the items she'd intended.

In the bottle this seems to have the buttery pumpkin note that can be problematic on me. On the skin, I am immediately assaulted by a bizarre alcohol/chemical smell. As it dries down, I start to pick up a raw cookie dough scent (yum), but that weird alcohol/chemical smell is still present. The pumpkin is far in the background here, so much so that I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I didn't know it was there from the notes. With additional time, some spices start to emerge, lighter and higher than in Pumpkin II or Pumpkin Latte. The spices gradually overtake the cookie dough scent (which is a shame) but at least the chemical smell has disappeared. Pumpkin V reminds me of Kourabiedes (from the 2010 TP Bag of Coal) but with nutmeg rather than clove. I'm interested to see what happens to Pumpkin V with a bit of aging, but I don't think I'll need more than a decant.

Of the three pumpkins I have available for testing, this one was the most appealing in the bottle. On the skin, this one immediately reminded me of Pumpkin Latte - it has the same pumpkin/spice combination, and the same powerful throw. There is less of a foodie vibe here (still spicy, but not sweet), and the wood note is there to distinguish Pumpkin II. After an hour or so, the powerful throw backed off to a moderate throw. Up close, there is a vegetative note that balances out the spices, and I can pick up the coffee scent. Overall, this is like Pumpkin Latte toned down a notch. I'll definitely keep my decant, but a full bottle might be redundant.

I'll be wearing Boo today while I sew my son's ghost costume. When I get around to sewing my own costume, it will be Red (both the scent and the costume).

2012 Version So far, this is the biggest WIN out of this year's Weenies. In the imp and wet on skin, there is a delicious syrupy pear scent, softer than the pear from The Vine. As it dries, the vanilla blooms in the most amazing way. This was a huge surprise, because my skin often takes vanilla notes and turns them into the beach ball/plastic doll disaster... but not here! Finally, I can join the I-Rock-Vanilla club! The pear starts to fade into the background, but I'm left with something that is more than just sweet vanilla. There is a quality here that I completely lack the ability to put into words, but it is also present in Samhain (I know, no obvious shared notes - I wish I knew what scent combination is responsible). The closest I can come to describing it is 'effervescently waxy' in the best possible way. I can already tell by the dwindling level in my decant that this will be a well loved oil. I have a bottle on the way, and I'm wondering if I should break my no-backups rule for this one. This is the kind of scent that gets in my head and demands to be worn; the type of scent that blooms in my scent memory and sends me running for the bpal box. A perfect scent for bedtime, a nice dinner out with someone special, walking the dog, reading a book, paying bills, doing laundry, developing superpowers, raking leaves, watching tv, solving world hunger, or just sitting around staring at the wall thinking "DAMN, I smell FANTASTIC!"

I tried FJoL shortly after my decants arrived several days ago, and it was All Gin All The Time, with a hint of that scent that you get at the bar late at night when you know you should have stopped drinking about a drink and a half ago, and you're not quite sure if you're going to toss your cookies. I had the decant in my Oh God Never Again pile, and decided to sniff it just to remind myself why it made me cringe. Smelling anything other than gin was enough to make me curious, so I applied the tiniest microdrop possible, away from pulse points... This time, I can smell something else behind the gin. It is ever so slightly sweeter, and might have settled enough that I'm willing to actually give it a real test sometime if it continues down this path as it ages... and I'm feeling very brave. But for now, I think I might as well make some bathtub gin, carve a rubber duck out of a lemon, and climb in - that might tone the scent down a bit. That being said, I do enjoy drinking gin (but apparently not smelling of it) so I may try out the drink recipe at our Halloween party this year. Hopefully that will turn out better.

Very high-pitched in the imp. Wet on skin, the sandalwood starts to come out, with a slightly dryer-sheet background. The sandalwood lends some warmth to the blend, but that background scent just isn't working for me. Several hours in, there is a lovely lingering fragrance, slightly spicy from the sandalwood, slightly sweet from... something. But by that point, I have to get very close to my skin to smell anything at all. Glad I got to try it, but I won't be needing this one. I have a sandalwood-obsessed friend, and I think she might like it quite a bit.