clovepod

Vixen actually has a strong patchouli note. I love it to death, and I've found that some people who hate patchouli due to "unwashed hippie" associations don't mind the patchouli in Vixen when I wear it, but others do, and it's certainly very present.

Dirty has a very clean scent, and Embalming Fluid is a good example of citrus, with a little warm white musk in the background.

Yes, it's very silly. The label is a hoot. SNRRRRR! GRRRRR! This is a lot more floral and girly than I usually like, and for the first hour or so after I applied it, I thought it wouldn't work out. I think this smells more like regular commercial perfume than any other BPAL I've tried. However, after a lot of drydown, the white musk comes forward and I am reminded that it's truly one of my favorite notes in all of BPAL-dom. This is probably the strongest white musk I've experienced so far-- it's satisfying. Or maybe I really do like the sweetness of the flowers, and just don't want to admit it! This seems like the kind of scent that would cause someone in the office to say, "you smell nice". Nice seems like a good one-word description of this scent.

The boy told me recently that he loves the smell of thunderstorms. I realized I had an imp of Lightning sitting in the "to try" box, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Wet, on the wand and on my skin, this does remind me of the smell of rain and a thunderstorm. It's a very crisp, clean scent, appropriate for hot weather. As it dries, I am reminded distinctly of Dirty. Most people say that Dirty smells like dryer sheets; not to me, but Dirty is also not a favorite. Lightning, on the other hand, does smell like dryer sheets, to me. Just like 'em.

Wet, the sweet orange dominates, but with the promise of a spicy, almost resinous backbone. I had hopes that the complexity would come forward as it dried, but sadly in most places I applied it simply disappeared. In the few places it remains, it's nothing but sweet orange. Juicy and real, but not a scent I want to wear. Upon extreme drydown, the sweet, sweet orange fades off, and i can smell a very faint whiff of pepper close to my skin. I like the pepper, but it doesn't save this for me.

Wet, the mint comes forward, and it's the exact same mint as in Tulzcha. Yay! I am so happy to find this same mint in the general catalog, as Tulzcha is my all-time favorite hot weather scent. On me, the grapefruit is present, and adds extra refreshment, but is not the top note. After much drying, this warms into a light skin scent, then disappears.

This is a review of the '05 version of Samhain. I love fall and Halloween and I went kind of nuts with the fall scents. I never reviewed them, though, so the snap of cool rainy weather that we're having here in NC seems like a good reason to do that now. For me, this is fall in a bottle. It's smoky and spicy and there's a hint of apple cider in the background. Sometimes I just love it, and sometimes it's a little too harsh-- the smoke wins too much. As the drydown proceeds, it becomes softer, and the spice notes come forward as the smoke recedes. ---- After more thought, i realized that this scent is not what fall actually smells like, but more represents an idealized moment that I always hope to have during fall. It's more a fantasy of fall, not a memory of fall.

The my initial reaction to Vixen was, "hippie shop!" It has a strong patchouli component. It's also drop. dead. sexy. It's one of my favorite scents, it's in the general catalogue, and from reviews I think a lot of people find it very wearable. Besides patchouli, it's also got ginger and orange blossom.