starfish327

definitely lavendar in the imp. something else underneath it, another floral, however masculine type blend. something amps up very sweet and almost citrusy on the skin. the lavendar pulls back but it's still there. touch of white musk (i'm guessing it's white musk that gives me problems) because i'm getting just the slightest suggestion of sour skin. not nearly as masculine once dry, and i'm not sure that i like this one enough to want to keep it around. at the same time there's the citrus sweet thing that i like about akuma and vice. think it goes to a second round of testing before i decide.

in the imp: a much sweeter top note than what i was expecting and then vetiver wet: very spicy. very nice. reminds me of cookies. dry: pretty much the same. this may be the winner of the new gcs that i've tried. it's very fall/autumn though. not as heavy as i had feared though i don't think that i would be able to get away with this at work.

aquatics and i rarely mix. this one works better than most but it's very middle of the road. throughout- imp to dry- this reminds me of a good bath product, like an expensive bubble bath. it's obviously an aquatic but it's also warm (i'm guessing the incense lurking behind it). it's slightly sweet as well. something about the combination also reminds me of cooking though i'm not sure what i'm picking up on that reminds me of food. it's nice, but i think it would like it better as a bath product.

very bright, very fresh. i get a fake watermelon type note, and a blast of cherry. something in it verges on sour but stays just on this side of it. i don't normally associate color with scent but this is PINK.

this is my favorite out of the honeys so far...bright, light green, and slightly floral with a sweet hit behind it. it almost smells fruity to my nose. it's very light though not faint. i think this may be my new favorite honey blend behind crib girls. it's very clean without being ozone or aquatics.

this really should have worked. there's no reason for this blend NOT to have worked... in the imp: a sharp woody greenness with something under that i recognize but can't name either. wet: wow. something is amping up to a screaming greenness. i know that i i know what it is but i'm not sure i can name it either. dry: well...first it's all citronella. it smells like bug spray. then i think that it morphs into something like gardenia, and then hyacinth. in long dry down it's quite pretty. it finally settles into orange blossom (which almost always works on me, it has in every other blend i've tried that it's been in) with a woody undertone. i'm not sure that the long dry down is worth the citronella blast that it gives me for the first half an hour or so.

in the imp: metal and ozone. it makes my nose itch and reminds me of summer thunderstorms at night. wet: reminds me a lot of mechanical phoenix but not nearly as painful as that was. i have problems with metal notes. dry: metal. straight up metal. it's very clean and borders on cold. the mental image i'm getting is guns. the musk starts creeping in slowly and i think that it's saving the blend from the nightmare that mechanical phoenix was but it's still not very good on my skin chemistry. it's an interesting blend though.

there's something not right about this one, and i'm certain it's all me. it's very off-putting in the imp; i found it to be very strong, medicinal and almost woody. wet there's a hint of some type of kitchen spice but i'm not sure what. my first impression is clove but it smells nothing like clove. dry the rose comes forward and helps to balance out the blend. i'm guessing that it's the myrrh that's throwing me off in this blend because i don't really get the frankincense either. it dries down to really expensive soap. i smell very clean like a dove bar. this should have worked and doesn't.

in the imp: florals over something woody, very green wet: the lavender comes to the forefront. i wish that this blend was stronger. floral over slight spiciness. dry: lavender starting to be dominated by vanilla. there is a slight foody warmth to this with a hint of spice. whatever was registering as green has disappeared. this is a nice blend. i'm not one to be big on nice blends however. i wish that it had more oomph though i didn't apply much either. however what i did apply has faded into a straightforward vanilla. i think i'll pass this one on to someone who'll appreciate it more.

deathly pride smells like what would happen if jelly beans mated with suntan lotion. and that's a good thing. in the imp: it's a very...odd scent. there's definitely a blast of coconut- i'm guessing the same coconut from obatala. behind that there's a blast of licorice but it's behaving. there's something that registers cold to my nose as well. wet: it reminds me a lot of the bulk candy section at wegmans and i'm not sure why. it smells very sweet, like candy, but not sickeningly so and it's not really foody. i'm not getting incense out of this at all. dry: there's still something that's registering as cold. i have no idea what. the coconut seems to have burned off pretty quickly and just left an impression of coconut, but not the actual coconut itself. the licorice starts to morph forward and i'm getting the impression of incense without the actual incense itself. i'm a very visual thinker and i'm getting two very different images: biting down on something very meaty and burning candles. i have no idea where either are coming from. it's bordering on medicinal but staying just away from it. this is a very odd scent, and i like the really odd blends. j see this as much more summer than yule though, and it appeals greatly to my chaotic side.

i don't think that this one likes me much...it's a very sharp green floral. i get very little honey out of this one at all, and i think that more honey would probably have saved this blend for me.

gore shock was all severed limbs and running blood. the music of eric zahn is summer. hemlock honey smells like eddie bauer.

this is a pretty straight forward blend that doesn't morph much on me, so i'm just going to post my general impressions instead of my normal stepped reviews. straight up, it's a very medicinal but not astringent blend. it smells like honeyed cough drops, or faintly like the organic section at wegman's (this is going to be a very imagery heavy review...). i agree that this smells a lot like hemlock, though this is obviously a sweeter blend. it's a very green blend that borders on masculine but the honey keeps it from going too far into masculine. my initial reaction to the scent is that it gives me a lot of scent memories- the first being the girl scout camp i went to for years in the southern tier of new york. the second being...eddie bauer, the clothing store? i'm not sure why, unless at one point they had a body product that smelled like this. but i definitely get mental images of the eddie bauer store that used to be in Utica. either way it's a very earthy, warm green blend as opposed to some of the yule greens that i've tried. it's a vaguely, oddly sexual blend but i'm not sure that i would call this a cousin to O either. it's very...safe (but not mundane). it reminds me of skin milk (a brand of body creme that walmart used to sell) on late dry down but it could just be my body chemistry, and i liked the way skin milk smelled.

the first impression is fruit and dirt. then it's fruit and grasses, finally fruit cobbler. the peach hits as a high top note followed by the pomegranate. the rose is really prevalent but it seems to be behaving currently. it's pretty but it's a little too conventionally feminine for my tastes. i'd probably wear it again if i were frimped more of it, but i wouldn't seek it out. if there was a stronger/deeper bottom note i would like it a lot better but right now it strikes me as airy and almost weak.

imps and decants absinthe akuma-3x baobhan sith bien loin d'ici black cat black death black heart block buster-2x blood pearl boo bordello calico jack centzon chimera czernobog crossroad-needs to be relabeled, using as a ritual oil dana o'shee deadly nightshade honey (tester) dee 2x dioble en bote doc constantine* dracul-2x Dragon's Heart dragon's hide egle ehecatl ekhidna-2x el dia des reyes-2007 event horizon fae-2x faunalia feast for the greatly revered ones grief-low hemlock honey (tester) herbert west high john hod-original, very low partial incubus intrigue jazz funeral-dated 2007 2x josie la bella donna della mia mente (tester/sniffie) lady macbeth lampades Laudanum Le Père Fouettard l'examen de minuit lilith victoria meliali milk chocolate, coconut, cardamom, rum, and ginger truffle needlework nephilim 2x obatala ochosi (need to check spelling) oleander honey (tester) paramatman pele perversion phantom queen sapphics sleipnir (spelling?) spooky res st. john's eve suck it sugar skull tavern of hell 2x the coiled serpent the ghost the great sword of war 2x the jersey devil the music of erich zahn 3x tiki princess proto v3 (tester/sniffie) torture king ulalume vampire tears-2x vice-3x villain yew trees yggdrasil yorick the amazing red labeled mystery decant *only willing to trade for something in the same scent family sniffies mr. croup ctvi: the amber series 154 sara pezzini anesthesia witchblade

florals and i normally don't mix, but i knew that grief stood out on my to try list though i couldn't remember why- it's the hyacinth. hyacinths are my favorite flowers. in the imp: soft white flowers, im assuming lily, over...something. i can't put my finger on it. not bad just familiar. wet: this really reminds me of the ghost, but i think i like it more. it reminds me a lot of cool water, which i wore all through high school. dry: first dry the hyacinth really sticks out and makes this an almost aquatic on my skin, without the sneezing and sinus pain a lot of aquatics give me. so this is definitely the fraternal twin of the ghost, but i think i like this one better for when i feel like a floral.

in the imp: pumpkin, pumpkin spice, then chocolate wet: wow this is a lot better than i thought that pumpkin and chocolate would be. and i'm glad i didn't read the notes first because i probably would run screaming. it smells like a really good pumpkin desert. the pumpkin hits first and then a large dose of the chocolate. dry: this is a really really REALLY good pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, the ones like my dad used to make when his garden exploded. the nut is much more prominent dry than wet.

in the imp: it's odd. i'm not sure what to think about it. it's...woody. woody musk topped with florals. wet: musky florals. i'm a touch disappointed. florals are the opposite of sexy to me. dry: it's morphing. it's jasmine or another whitish floral over something deep and red and throbbing. even though it's throbbing, i'm getting more cuddle than sexy. the red starts coming to the front which is going to save this imp. i don't think it inspires darkly sexual thoughts (sorry, but kink doesn't smell like red jolly ranchers). i do feel more playful though.

ivory soap and bay rum. this is a definite cousin to jolly roger...unfortunately jolly roger works much better with my skin chemistry. this wanted to be very masculine soap in the imp and wet (in fact there's a guy i work with that smells like this when he comes in for shift every night...), and slowly morphed into rum and woods. this may be one of the few blends that is too masculine for me to be able to pull off- my first instinct was to find something to layer with it to cut the masculinity a little. i think that i'll stick with jolly roger for something in this scent family.

pale white flowers underneath a full moon, early summer. very pale, very delicate. white gardenia, straight through. it reminds me a little of psychological horror, so i'm guessing there's some musk in there as well since i didn't get florals that i remember from psy horror. it's very pretty. it's very delicate, i'm not sure that it has that much of a throw on me at all though i could be wrong, florals are tricky for me. gardenia is one of the few florals that i can normally pull off easily (normally). there is a slight sourness under it on one wrist but not the other. weird. this was an escapee from the mass testing of 2009/2010 but i think this will stick around.

The essence of ambition, covetousness and manipulation: sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries. this has been hanging out in my imp box for awhile now because i stopped wearing oils for awhile for my boyfriend's allergies' sake and i'm not comfortable wearing alcohol based (wine, rum, etc) to work. in the imp: dark red wine and blackberries/currants. wet: wine and something going soapy and sour. uh oh. dry: nope. still soapy and sour, just less so. the wine is trying to fight through, and periodically i do get whiffs of kool aid (the dreaded kool aid that i actually love so much in suck it). but it's mostly soapy sourness like i normally turn rose notes into. i'm almost guessing it's the thyme, though i still suspect that there's a rose or two in here. too bad. this one really should have worked on me.

2007 version between a sinus infection and my asthma i have had a small vacation from bpal so now that i can breathe again i can go back to reviewing in the imp: chocolate first, pretty much just straight up chocolate. closer to a chocolate syrup than a dry cocoa or even chocolate candy. it's a good chocolate syrup though, it's not hershey's. then the coffee kicks in wet: a really good dark mocha. dry: it's still a really good mocha though there may be a small dose of cinnamon or nutmeg in there but i'm not sure if i'm getting that only because i happened to glance at a review or not. it smells to alternate between coffee and chocolate being prominent, and there is a touch of playdough in there, but i remember there being the same impression off of espresso beans on occasion when i was still working with coffee every day.

samhain 2007 in the imp: apples, cinnamon, a little bit of wood, something that's both leathery and grainy at the same time wet: apple, cinnamon, wood, and oatmeal dry: sweet cinnamon and pumpkin spice, with a splash of apple. it's deepened by a hint of smoke. at first it reminds me of sweet cinnamon pumpkin but then the apple comes back to the front. this is very very nice. completely wrong in feel for the day, but it's very comforting at the same time. samhain 2010 in the bottle: apples over something murky. wet: wow, incense and dirt. there's nothing fruity about this at all. this is as about as dark and murky as my collection gets. this is totally not what i was expecting, but i like it- think dracul or similar, but not as incensy. dry: this is really morphing as it dries. it stays very dark on my skin but the apple note comes forward a LOT more, so the entire blend gets a lot sweeter. it's like eating apple pie in the dark, but not nearly as spicy. throw seems to be minimal because i slathered this on accident, and my normally scent sensitive boyfriend hasn't commented at all. it'll be interesting to see what happens when this blend calms down a little more (it came in the mail yesterday) and ages a bit.

once the creosote blast that i get initially dies down...it's really NOT bad. it actually reminds me of a lot less maply px717 or a less rosy st. john's eve. i'm going to try layering it at some point. i'd wear it straight (really really sparingly) except that it gives me a mental image of dried blood. interpreting everything as an image has its downsides.

very green, sweet, and almost aquatic. very light.