mari4212

Theoretically, you're here checking out this blog because you just got my questionaire. ...At this point, I'm just grateful that you didn't jump out the window as soon as you read it. I promise, I'm very easy-going, and I'm going to be thrilled with whatever you give me. I didn't list a wishlist other than my BPAL one in the ?aire, but comments on the thread convinced me to make another one with more generalized stuff, so here's a link to my kaboodle list. Don't feel like you have to get anything on there, as it's mostly me going ooh shiny at things like books and candles and the occasional pretty Etsy things. I've been answering the questions that are popping up in the SW thread, and I'll start another blogpost to corral all of them into one spot so that you don't have to trawl through all the pages to find a comment here or there. For stalking purposes, I'd suggest wandering over to my livejournal, linked as my website on my profile. That's got over five years of my life recorded on it, and most of it is unlocked and easily read through to get a sense of who I am on most things. *hugs you for being awesome and taking part in this* I'm sure I'm going to love everything you do for this, so don't stress about anything. Mari

frimp from a fellow forumite On wet, this is like a slightly lighter form of Gluttony. It's minus the chocolate, and is somewhat less overpoweringly sweet. Might be the oak, tempering the molasses notes a bit. Drydown: Yes, the wood note is calming this down a tad. I can very rarely wear gluttony, as it's just too overpoweringly rich and sweet, but this is more my speed. I'll have to see how it wears throughout the day, but this one might be a keeper. And if Kill-Devil stays Gluttony but more wearable, my imp of Gluttony might make a trip to the swaps box.

Umm. I got a sample of this as a freebie imp from girasol, and I'm so glad I did. This is one of the superbly blended scents, where I often find it hard to pick out individual notes. I'm getting the amber and vanilla predominantly, which make for a creamy golden scent, with just enough marigold to make this have a hint of spice to it. It's a skin scent, and stays right on my wrists and neck without wafting, but it's absolutely lovely there. Good doubles for Harp include Lyonnesse (though it's a bit more grey in tone) and Posset's Madame X.

I'm having a hard time breaking this down into component parts, but this just smells utterly warm, spicy, and definitely male. Actually, it smells like it should be worn by Lydias, from the book Stealing Fire, since I happen to be looking at that book right now. Picture here. This smells fantastic, but I might have to try it out on my brother, because it should work better on him. I wouldn't wear this enough on my own, as I tend to like scents that are a little more feminine.

Tested from a decant of indeterminate age, gifted by a very generous fellow forumite. In the imp: mint and vanilla in about equal proportions. On wet: Mint takes the lead, but it's a soft mint. Those who have compared it to the little after-dinner mints are right, because this is the slightly softened and sweetened mint from those, not the blast of straight peppermint extract that you get in altoids, or the artificial smell of chewing gum. Initial drydown: it's a bit sharp, possibly from the green tea. Unfortunately for me, the bergamot/earl grey doesn't come out at all. I love to drink teas, but their scents don't tend to work on me at all. Fortunately, the green tea fades away fast. Final drydown: The vanilla comes out to play, and this becomes sweet minty-vanilla goodness with just a hint of spice. Like Boomslang, the only other snakepit blend I've tried, this seems to instantly skip over the problems I have with fresh SO in favor of the wonderfully aged smell. I'm not sure if this is a bottle-worthy purchase yet, but I'll love my little half-decant.

In the imp and on wet: a sweetly spiced incense. People have mentioned nag champa in regards to this, and I can believe it. It's like standing in front of the incense table at someplace like Nirvana. Initial drydown: I think the red musk is starting to come out, but the majority of this is still the scent of several incenses lying together on a table and mingling. After a few more minutes, it developed a funky smell and I had to scrub it off. Not for me.

Wet: Soapy florals, possibly lily, as lily often goes soapy on me. Drydown: After a bit, a combination of a tea rose and some incense starts to develop. A little while after that, the dragon's blood peeks its head in. This is a lovely blend for someone else, but it didn't end up working on me at all. Another one to toss into the swaps box.

I'm finding it hard to pick out individual notes on this scent. I think I'm getting the frankincense and carnation strongest, but it's just very thoroughly blended together as a warm and light golden scent. It sits right on the edge between floral, herbal, and incense scents, with aspects of each, but never quite falling into one easy category for me. And it's absolutely lovely.

On wet: It starts out being very fresh and clean-smelling. Drydown: Oh no, and I was so hoping this was going to work as another lightweight summer scent. This turns to laundry detergent and baking soda on me. Still clean, yes, but overwhelmingly soapy on me. Not going to work.

Wet: Lavender comes out strongly at first, which is fine by me, because I love a good lavender scent. Initial drydown: The lavender from before is dying back, and the scent turns into a cooler-toned Dee. That must be the tonka and rosewood interacting with the lavender. Drydown: As it dries and develops on my skin, the lavender dies back more and more, revealing the tonka, rosewood, and amber. There's still a trace amount of something cooling in here that keeps it away from the warm of Dee, but this is very nice, very nice indeed. I'm not picking up on the patchouli, a major plus for me. The other scent this resembles, in feel more so than notes, is Lyonnesse, which also remains cool feeling although the notes that stand out on my skin all should be warm. I have a feeling that on me at least, Old Scratch is going to be a similar sleeper hit.

This is a departure for me, as I'm normally wearing the soft vanilla/amber scents. Tempest is cool and green on me, faintly herbal, but not any one specific herb. On wet, there's a faint hint of citrus, a little like lemon rind or grapefruit. It stays as that greenish scent for a while. After about a half an hour, something weird happens, and I get the faint hint of a crust of homemade bread that starts out riding along with the green note, and gradually takes over. Like Bread and Butterfly, it's a dry bread smell. I have no idea how my skin chemistry took green-citrus-ozone and turned it into bread, but there you go. Probably sending this off to swaps, because I have a bread scent already that I prefer.

My first thought is Dorian, for the tea, the literary references, and a bit of intellectual aesthete. A lot of people say it's sexy, but I don't get that as much from it. Also, there is no such thing as reading too much. It's just not possible.

Initial thoughts/hopes on reading the scent description after this was frimped to me: Ooh, amber, vanilla and heliotrope? All good scents on me. Cherry? now I'm worried. Strawberry and red musk I've yet to try often enough to know how they'll go. On wet: This starts off as a strawberry/cherry mix, but avoids smelling like cough syrup. Initial drydown: The strawberry has gone into hiding, and the cherry is perilously close to cough syrup on me, but there's something sweet going on behind it that's so far keeping the scent out of cold medicine territory. Full drydown: this is a cherry-vanilla scent, primarily. I think I'm picking up on a bit of the strawberry or heliotrope, because this is also almost candy-sweet. It's a bit too sticky of a scent for a day like today, it only makes me feel more hot and sticky myself. I'll try it again after the weather cools down for a longer tryout, to see if the amber and vanilla come out more.

In the imp, it smells somewhat sweet, and almost cool. On wet: Mild citrus over light wood. It's interesting smelling, without being either an instant win or instant fail. Drydown: The citrus is becoming less prominent, and something is lightly sweetening the woods. This turns into a very lightweight, almost dry woods smell, with just enough sweetness to keep it nice on me. I'm not sure if I'll be keeping this one, because I'm not sure it fills any needed holes in my perfume sets, but it is lovely.

In the imp: honey, and something else sweet. On me: unfortunately, the honey disappears entirely. What's left must be the lotus note, and it goes straight to that pink-flavored bubble gum. The kind that doesn't have any specific flavor listed, it's just pink? Yeah, that's where this scent went. Tossing that one into the swaps box.

This is the kind of rose I was hoping for in Harlot, but never got on my skin. It's rich and sweet without being too overpowering. The leather is present, but subdued. It's a base note holding the rose in place, not sounding forth much on its own. This isn't like when I left my leather gloves in my purse next to an imp of Two, Five, and Seven, the leather smell doesn't come through as much. I'm also getting a touch of powdery sweetness when I bring my nose right up against my wrist. I like it, but then, I love sweet smells and a bit of powder. I'd class this as being like Rose Cross on me, strongly rose with just a little bit more underneath to make it somehow even better.

This. I started BPAL my senior year of college, though it took me another two years to join the boards. My roommate that year had major allergic reactions to certain preservatives, one of which is in most commercial perfumes and cigarettes. She was thrilled that BPAL perfumes were ones she could wear without being flattened for the rest of the day. I don't think she ever got any of her own, but she gratefully took the imp of Mata Hari off my hands when jasmine did it's evil death thing on me. As for what to throw into the box, I'd say like the others, go with some of the classics. I'd also suggest throwing in something fun and creative that shows off the Lab's playful side, like any decants if you have them of the Black Helicopters scents. I think BPAL tends to have a bit more room to play and explore more fun random concepts than a lot of the more traditional perfume houses do.

Gift imp from GirlinDenial in the art swap. On me, this is lemon and sugar, light and sweet. Perfect for summer wear, though it dies down pretty fast.

Hold the bottle steady, and then I kind of wiggle the top off. There's no threads, so twisting isn't necessary. What you need is enough upward thrust to pull the top off, without so much that you jostle the imp bottle.

In the imp, and immediately swiped across my wrists, there's a dark green herbal scent for a minute. Possibly the myrtle? That scent fades away, and what's left is a rich amber scent. And it's warm and soft amber, my favorite. I love it. This is along the lines of the Lion and Haunted on me, where the amber is the most predominant note and I love it for that.

Gift imp in a swap. On me, both dragon's blood and almonds tend to go straight to cherry. This blend turns into a close mimic of Dragon's Milk on my skin, that same cherry scent mixed in with a somewhat honeyed vanilla. I don't get any smoke out of it, and if there's vetiver in here, it's not showing up on me at all, which is a very good thing. This feels a bit lighter than Dragon's Milk, without the insane amount of waft. I put on Dragon's Milk, and people are complimenting me from twenty feet away. This doesn't have the same wafting feel to it. I'm debating whether it's a keeper or not, because it is so similar to something I already own and wear rarely.

This is sweet dry cake on me, all the way through. In comparison to Cockaigne, Eat Me is a dry white cake scent, the cake after it's been baked, but before you've put the fresh cream cheese frosting overtop, whereas Cockaigne was the smell of yellow cake batter and sugar. Eat Me is a skin scent on me, and it doesn't do much morphing. It does last several hours, and is one I always want to have around, at least in imp form.

Eve definitely tends to go green apple and rose on me. I get no ylang-ylang or honey at all.

In the imp and on wet: Greeny, damp. I can smell the juniper strongly, with the mint adding a slight zing. Initial drydown: The mint is coming to the forefront. When I hold my arms away from my face, I get a slight waft of mint and something sweet, the lotus, maybe? I don't think I've smelled lotus before, not enough to be able to pick it out. This fades very fast, down to a light hint of mint and juniper that I can only find by huffing my wrists. I'm getting more from the hint of Rose Cross lingering on my clothing. And while it's a nice enough scent, I don't see me wearing it anywhere. Swaps box time.

In the imp and on wet: Umm. Sweet and rich, with a hit of unfamiliar spice that must be the pink pepper. Drydown: more of the same. This is pretty and feminine, but with a definite kick to it. It's flirty and cheerful, but with a bit of spunk to it as well. Definitely one to wear on my "I'm having fun" days.