Miss Lynx

On the whole, the Ars Draconis series has not been good to me -- dragon's blood may be one of my favourite incense resins, but the oil on my skin is unpredictable and often goes candy-sweet in a really unpleasant way. But I figured three sandalwoods should be enough to bring anything under control... And sure enough, it's not overly sweet -- initially. That slightly syrupy element that dragon's blood tends to bring to a scent is there, but it's not overpowering. The overall effect is more incense than candy, thankfully. However, the scent is also really, really light -- I almost thought it had disappeared entirely at first, but it's there... It's just very soft and staying extremely close to the skin. Ironically, I tried this at the same time as another dragon's blood scent (at least, I assume it's got dragon's blood - it doesn't really say) -- Blood Lotus, which I expected to go horrifically sweet and perfumey on me. Why ironically? Because Blood Lotus has actually turned out to be pretty nice on me, while this one is -- well, going all perfumey. Not to an unbearable extent, but as it's settled into my skin it's developed that sharp, cloying, commercial-perfume sort of edge that ruined nearly all the other Ars Draconis scents for me. The sandalwood is making a valiant effort to counterbalance that with incensey niceness, but it's not quite winning the war. Someone please explain to me how three kinds of sandalwood, a note that is usually excellent on me, failed to tame the dreaded dragon, but lotus, a note I live in fear of because it usually turns into bubblegum on me, somehow did? This makes no sense... Grade: C+/B-

Lotus is one of those notes I tend to fear, and dragon's blood (which I'm assuming is in here, since it's in pretty much every othe BPAL scent with the word "blood" anywhere in the name) has always been kind of dodgy on me -- sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But I recently got a frimp of this, and it didn't smell to frighteningly sweet in the imp, so I figured I'd give it a try. On first contact, it's pretty sweet all right, but not too bad... There's enough of an incensey edge to it that it doesn't smell like perfume overkill. Yet. But high sweet florals like lotus do tend to amp dramatically on me, so we'll see... It's also got an interestingly fruity aspect to it -- someone mentioned red wine, so maybe that's it. Not sure. Anyway, that improves it for me, as fruit notes generally behave themselves better on my skin than florals go. And strangely enough, it doesn't turn awful on me at all! After half an hour or so, which is usually plenty long enough for florals to do their worst on me, it's still pretty pleasant. Sweet, but not overly so, and a bit like Dragon's Reverie, which also worked on me despite my expectations of horror. I don't think this is one that will become a favourite, but the fact that it's turned out at all nice on me is astonishing, really. I might have to keep it just to reassure myself that I didn't imagine the whole thing... Grade: B

This scent is both the twin and the opposite of Three Gorgons, based on my trial of them at the recent Toronto meet'n'sniff. Twin in that they're both wonderful and I want bottles of both of them now. Opposite in that while Three Gorgons starts out beautiful and then diminishes, this one starts out a little off and then gets massively better. When fresh, I was a little disappointed in it. Something in it was a little... not right. Kind of green, and overly sweet, and a bit "perfumey" smelling in a bad way. But once it had settled in for a few minutes... Oh. My. Gods. It was absolutely divine. A gorgeous, deep, intoxicating scent, complex and beautiful. It's simultaneously citrussy, spicy, incensey, boozy, musky, sexy and magical... Definitely one of the Best Scents Ever on me! It's practically up there with Red Phoenix, and nothing is up there with Red Phoenix! *sigh* I was almost halfway hoping not to like any of the Salon scents, since they're so much more expensive than the regular ones, but this... whoa. A $25 price tag is not going to stand in my way. Grade: A+

This was the instant winner of all the Exhibit II scents I got to try at the recent meet'n'sniff. I knew anything with orange, amber and spices could not be bad on me (at least, not unless it included something evil like cherry blossom, like *sigh* Bakeneko did), and it definitely did not disappoint. In fact, I think my eyes rolled back in my head when I first sniffed it on me, and I distinctly recall saying something like "Oh Gods, I need a bottle of this now. Now!" It's a rich, heady, intoxicating spicy citrus-incense blend, with dark undertones... everything that Al-Shairan and Bakeneko both should have been but weren't (at least not on me). Absolutely, devastatingly gorgeous. I did find, though, that as it dried down, the depth and beauty of it faded a certain amount... It's funny, some scents take some time to come into their full greatness, but others, like this one, start off fabulous and then diminish. But still... Even in its faded state, it was pretty nice, and when fresh it's indescribably great. So yes, I think there's a bottle of this in my future. Grade: A

Interesting... I'm not a fan of orris or leather, but some of the other notes in here sounded good to me, and it did turn out to be an intriguing blend. The overall feel of it is dark and dry... A little bit floral, but not overly sweet -- it's quite well balanced, and comes across as quite gender-neutral. I didn't find it as distinctly masculine as some of the other posters seem to have, though it would certainly work on a guy as well. There's a strong woody undercurrent, but it never gets that kind of funky "off" note that woody scents do on me sometimes. On the whole, not bad at all, though not really exactly my type of scent. Grade: B-

This one sounded sooooo good to me... He-Goat or not, anything with pomegranate and ginger and amber would have to be great on me. And when I first put it on, it was indeed very nice, and not nearly as masculine as you might think. A little reminiscent of Blood Kiss and/or Voodoo, though not identical to either. A strong vetiver kick, but balanced out with sweetness and spiciness. Unfortunately, that phase of it really didn't last long. The vetiver rose up and stomped all the other notes into submission. Which is sad, because I really liked it when I could smell all of it. Maybe it would be OK in a scent locket, if I had one... I don't dislike vetiver, but I like it to be in balance with other notes, and when it takes over, it's just no fun any more. Grade: C+/B-

Tried this at the meet'n'sniff the other day. It was a nice, soft, ethereal floral incense... very gentle. A little reminiscent of All Souls, without that slight buttery note that that one has. Unfortunately, it also disappeared from my skin within about five minutes! So while I think I liked it, it really didn't stick around long enough for me to be sure at all... Grade: C+/B- (higher if it had lasted)

I wanted to like this, but the presence of caramel made me suspect that I would not, and I was right, sadly. It's very much like Tiresias and Red Lantern -- an otherwise very scent marred by the unwelcome presence of caramel. I like caramel fine to eat, but I do not want to wear it. Every scent I have ever tried that contained it, that note has stood out unpleasantly and thrown everything else off for me. And it's too bad, because everything else in it smells good to me -- a nice, sultry, incensey scent with slight spicy-floral overtones. *sigh* I guess caramel is starting to be up there with ylang ylang and cherry blossom as a note that can kill any scent for me no matter how good everything else in it is. Grade: C

I was happy to be able to try this at the most recent Toronto meet'n'sniff, because even though it sounded too floral for me, I like the name, and I'm a big fan of William Blake in general (though more his poetry than his paintings). But I was quite prepared for it not to work on me -- my skin amps florals like crazy. Sweet pea and orchid in particular are usually bad news on me, though muguet (a.k.a. lily of the valley) is not too bad. But to my surprise, it was really pretty nice. The florals are not so strong in the mix as to completely dominate it, even on my skin. The vanilla actually stood out most to me, and did not go all Play-Doh-y the way it sometimes can on me. The rest seemed fairly evenly balanced between the incensey notes and the florals, with neither one predominating. So overall, not bad at all. Not necessarily a case of instant love the way a couple of others from Exhibition II were for me (Three Gorgons and Lot And His Daughters), but definitely some like, anyway. I'm not about to spring for a bottle, but I wouldn't say no to an imp if I happened to come across one. Grade: B

Very interesting the variety of reactions this one is getting -- it's hard to believe we're all smelling the same oil! I think part of it may be the way that cocoa absolute is so thick and tends to glob up into little balls instead of mixing with other oils, so if the Lab mixed this one up in a big batch, I'm thinking people may have gotten wildly varying amounts of cocoa absolute in theirs. For the record, my bottle is totally clear, with no trace of the cocoa absolute , and smells not unlike the white chocolate/orange combo of the first 13. But on, it really blossoms, and becomes wildly complex. It literally smells different with each sniff, even just within the first few minutes. On the whole, though, what I get from it is very different than the dark-and-dry a lot of people seem to be getting. On me, this is possibly the sweetest, and in particular, most heavily floral of the three 13s. I keep thinking, smelling it, that I should recognize some of the floral notes, since they seem to be the kind of flowers that are not completely evil on my skin, but they slip away before I can pin them down. And they often seem to be slightly mutated versions of themselves -- at one point I'm sure there's rose in it, but it's not like a regular rose scent; more like some Indian dessert flavored with rosewater. At another point, I think there's jasmine, but it's more like jasmine tea than jasmine perfume. Elsewhere in it, I am sure there is orange, which according to the description there is not, and then about two minutes later I am equally sure that it's not orange, it's mango, or some other tropical fruit. That element in it reminds me of Kuang Shi. It's also got a sweet watery freshness to it that's very springlike, and puts me in mind a bit of Yerevan. And there's a soft underlying incensiness that keeps it from being too over-the-top sweet. Overall, I do wish I'd gotten some of that cocoa absolute in mine, since I love that note so much in Boomslang, but it's lovely even without it. I haven't disliked a 13 yet, and this one definitely holds up to the standard the others set. I don't know yet how I'd rank the three in comparison to each other -- with the first two, it really seemed to depend on my mood, and I'm guessing it will this time too. But still... I'd call this a definite winner. Grade: A

This one sounded so good to me, but once I actually tried it I was... underwhelmed. It's not that it was bad -- it's quite pleasant. It's just, well, not all that interesting. My initial reaction was pretty much "Yep, that's fruit." And not much else. Eventually a bit of a condensed-milk sort of scent crept into it, but on the whole, it was just sort of sweet, mildly fruity and bland. I don't dislike it -- it hasn't got enough character to be dislikable. But there's not a lot here to get excited about, either. Oh well. Perhaps someone else will love it. Grade: B

At first sniff, this seemed mostly floral to me, and very perfumey. But as it settles in a bit, it develops more complexity, and there's a strong herbal element coming out now that takes the edge of the sweetness. Now there's a definite spicy/incensey edge to it, and I can definitely pick out the honey/sugar elements to it. Much nice this way! It's got a lovely balance of sweetness and sharpness, with some warmth and also some edge to it. it's not anisey enough to smell all that much like real absinthe to me, but nonetheless it manages to capture a bit of the same feel. The vanilla musk is a nice balancing note as well. As it develops further, most of the spicy and herbal element is lost, or at least fades down to be very subtle, and just a soft honey/vanilla/musk remains, a bit like a cross between O and Antique Lace, but thankfully without the Play-Doh-ish feel the latter has on me. There's still faint touches of spice in it, but they're very soft now. Actually, at this stage it's quite reminiscent of Vasakasajja from the Faces of the Heroine series. All in all, I like it, quite a lot. It's definitely a morpher, going through stages that seem like several distinctly different perfume oils over the span of an hour and a half or so (which sadly, is about how long it lasts on me). But thankfully, I like most of them. And even the very changeability of it seems to keep me on my toes. Grade: B+

A dark, dark, dark scent -- definitely more black musk than anything. I can see the much-remarked similarities to Schwarzer Mond, but of the two I like Schwarzer Mond better. In this one, the musk is a bit over-the-top for me -- I'd have preferred less of the musk and more of the incense resins. It's certainly not bad, though, and the initial musk onslaught does begin to fade after a while, letting the other notes come out to play. At first I was bewildered by the review that mentioned Mama-Ji, but as it develops, I'm starting to see it... Nothing anywhere near the floral notes in that, but it seems to have a touch of some similar spiciness. A little reminiscent of Khandita on that front, too. I am definitely liking it much more it settles in. The long-range scent is a slightly powdery, spicy musk. Quite nice, really, though a bit too similar to a few scents I already have for me to want to track down a bottle. I do think it would probably work equally well on a man as a woman -- possibly better, even, though beyond the initial musk blast it's pretty female-friendly as well. Grade: B+

Cinnamon red-hots! Seriously, this is as close to single note cinnamon as I think you can get without getting the perfume equivalent of a chemical burn. If there are any other notes in here, I can't smell them. Eventually, as it fades down a bit, there does seem to be a hint of something else -- mint maybe? Something herbal. But mainly it's still The Cinnamon Show. It is also starting to make the skin where I applied it itch a little bit, and there's a touch of redness developing, even though I made a point of putting it on a not-very-sensitive place (back of hand instead of wrist), due to the extreme cinnamonyness. I don't mind the scent, but I think I may have to wash this off just for the well-being of my skin. Note to self: if ever doing ritual work with Uranus and using this oil, apply it only to the candles! Grade: B-

This is the first Monster Bait scent I have ever voluntarily ordered for myself, rather than for Kettu who likes the foody scents more than I do. Something about the description of this one just made it sound like it might actually work on me... And thus far, it actually seems to! It's not the sort of nasty, almond-extracty maraschino cherry note that turns up in some other scents -- this one smells like real cherries! And a little bit boozy at the same time. Maybe cherry brandy or something. And there is something soft and creamy in it also... And a slightly incensey touch. So far, very nice. I am not getting the sharp/sour/medicinal element to it that some people have, but it does seem less sweet than expected, which is nice. Not getting a teenybopper/candy-sweet effect either. It's almost more in the same ballpark scentwise as Hollywood Babylon, which I quite like. Though I never would have expected it before getting into BPAL, fruit scents seem to really like my skin. Checked it again about 20 minutes after putting it on, and -- hey! Where are you going! Come back! Damn, it's fading away entirely, or at least pretty close to it. Thankfully, it doesn't disappear completely, but it does get much less strong after about that time. It's just a faint creamy sweetness now, after cose to two hours. If it lasted longer, I'd be tempted to hunt down a bottle... This is definitely my favourite of the Monster Baits Grade: B+

This is a very gentle scent on me -- much more so than you'd think from the list of notes. It's softly herbal and woodsy, with just a faint touch of floral. It also smells relatively gender-neutral despite the rose, probably because the rose is fairly light in the mix, even on my rose-amping skin. It's quite pleasant, and something in it makes me think of summer fields and forests and warm sunshine. Definitely a bit of a mediterranean feel, appropriately enough for its inspiration. And definitely not conventionally perfumey at all -- it smells more like a ritual or aromatherapy oil. But in a good way. Unfortunately, it fades away quite quickly -- within an hour, I could only barely smell it with my nose pressed to my wrist. Oh well. It was pretty nice while it lasted. Grade: B

Strange -- this isn't nearly as overwhelmingly floral as it sounds like it would be from the description. There's floral notes in there, to be sure, but it's a lighter scent than it sounds like, and less strongly sweet. Especially with notes in there like sweet pea and apple blossom, which are usually a sure recipe for Screaming Floral Death on my skin, this is a pleasant surprise. It really does have a feeling of energy or movement to it, too, which is very fitting for its inspiration. It's light, bright and energetic, and smells about equal parts floral and herbal, with the vanilla as a soft undercurrent binding it all together. Very much a late spring/early summer kind of scent to me, and thus fairly appropriate to the time of year it is now. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay like that. As it settles in, a lot of the energy seems to dissipate, and it takes on a distinctly soapy/powdery feel. Too bad. I got two frimps of this in my last Lab order, and I was very tempted to keep one. If only it had stayed true to how it started out... Grade: B-

Hmm, this is nice. I haven't had as much luck with most of the Rappacini's Garden scents as I would have liked, but this one is nicer on me than most. It's not as aggressively green as a lot of them are -- a little more woody and earthy, almost incensey. There's certainly a strong herbal current to it, but it never gets near that sharp, pine-air-freshener greenness that a lot of them do. I keep thinking its soft, bittersweet woodiness seems familiar, and it finally hit me that it's sort of like Strangler Fig without the fig -- i.e. the non-fruity aspect of that one. It's a bit like a dark sandalwood or something, with maybe a bit of cedar and some sort of incense resin added: a nicely evocative woody/earthy/incensey scent that comes across as quite gender-neutral. This could as easily be worn by a man as a woman. It's got a kind of grounding/calming feel to it, but with a bit of darkness and mystery added as well. Seasonally, it feels like an autumn scent, but there are likely some summer days it would work for as well. So, final verdict: I like. Don't think it'll necessarily be a top favourite, but it's certainly going to get worn from time to time, Grade: B+

Hmmm, pretty nice. Spicy dragon's blood. Not as much depth as I tend to like in scents, but certainly not without appeal. It's pleasantly fiery, and my initial thought was that it would probably make quite a nice summer scent. But as it dried down, it just sort of... I don't know, fell a bit flat somehow. It never became bad, exactly, just not terribly interesting. It's still spicy dragon's blood, but it hasn't got a lot going for it but that, and I have so many other spicy resinous scents that it's hard to get too excited about this one. It doesn't come anywhere close to the greatness of, say, Chimera. So... Not bad, but not really a standout. And no real reason to hang onto it when I have others that are similar but better. Grade: B ETA: Looking at the description again, apparently it's frankincense rather than dragon's blood. Not sure why I was so sure it was dragon's blood... Oh well. Most of my review still pretty much holds...

I knew Faith would never work on me -- Violet = death on my skin. But rose I have a sneaking fondness for, even though my skin loves to amp it to intolerable proportions, and I am always hoping (so to speak) to find a rose scent or two that actually work on me. And there are a few that come close... This is almost, maybe, one of them. It's odd -- you wouldn't expect sugar to make a scent less sweet. But it sort of does. BPAL's sugar note is one of those ones that confuses me, because actual sugar doesn't have too much of a scent, but its effect here seems to be to soften the rose a bit. I'm still glad I only put on a teeny amount, as the rose does amp, but on the whole it's not too bad. It still smells almost entirely of rose, but that bit of counterpoint from the sugar mellowing it makes it more bearable than plain rose would be on me. It also makes it a tiny bit reminiscent of some kind of Indian drink or dessert with rosewater in it, which is not a bad thing at all. I may just have to hang on to the little bit I had left from the decant circle I did... Grade: B

I'm usually not big on foody scents, but couldn't resist trying this one, just because it sounded so crazy. And the description pretty much does it justice... It's spicy chocolate cherries, over a soft vanilla-musk background. Thankfully, the caramel, which is usually one of the worst foody notes on me, is pretty weak in this one. Cherry is about my least favourite fruit note, though -- I don't hate it exactly, but it's a little too close almond for comfort, and I really dislike almond. The cherry's not overwhelming in here, thankfully, but it's enough to keep me from being too fond of it. The cherry does eventually fade, and I like it better after that, but it's also very faint by that point. On the whole, it's not bad -- a bit like Smut with cherries, or a softer, muskier Vice. Don't know if I like it enough to hang onto it, but Kettu's reaction upon first sniffing it was a loud squee, followed by "I want to eat the little groundhogs! I want to eat them all up!!!, and then by more sniffing and some rapturous sighing. So I will likely save it for her to wear once she's had the babies and no longer had to avoid perfume. Grade: B

Wow -- this is very light, and sweet. I would have expected Fire Pigs to be a ltitle more -- well, fiery. And earthy for the pig part. Though from looking at the notes, it does look like about what it smells like: a light, Asian fruity-floral. It's very springlike, with an airy/watery feel. Pleasant enough, but maybe a little too sweet for me... It has an appealling complexity to it, though. Very nicely crafted. And really, even if I hated it we'd have to keep this one, given that my wife is expecting twins in a few months, and the babies are going to be Fire Pigs. I really should have probably gotten a bottle just on that basis alone... Grade: B

Very sweet, and very aquatic. Despite being a Pisces, and liking the ocean, I usually don't do very well with aquatic scents -- they don't usually actually smell like the sea to me, they usually just smell like -- well, perfume. But this one is nicer than most aquatics. It still has that perfumey edge -- I don't know if there's really any way to attempt to replicate notes like "sea spray" without having them smell synthetic -- but it's not nearly as bad as most. My skin is amping the jasmine a fair bit, so that it becomes pretty much the dominant note, but it doesn't go so far as to become screaming jasmine hell as can sometimes happen. I wish I got a bit more of the incensey notes, but on the whole, it's not at all bad. I don't think it's something I'd wear on a regular basis, but it would be great for doing any sort elemental water work, so I may save it for use as a ritual oil. Grade: B P.S. Wow - this is my 400th BPAL review! Er... I do have a life. Really.

I like this a lot more than I thought I would. I couldn't resist trying it because of the complexity of the notes, but I thought it would probably be too floral for me. But it's really not... There are certainly floral elements to it, but they're not overwhelming at all. The dominant feel of it is very light and fresh, and really quite perfect for the sabbat it's named for. There's something a bit watery in it without it having the sort of synthetic edge to it that scents that are considered aquatic usually seem to have, and it's a bit airy as well, and there's a sort of woody undertone, and something that seems actually a bit like damp soil, but not the nauseous graveyard dirt note that you find in Zombi and its relatives. It's a little bit reminiscent of Ulalume, or maybe a less-overwhlemingly-floral Arkham. Very appropriately springlike, and while not my usual sort of scent, probably quite good for any sort of spring festival, or even just days where I want to smell like spring. Grade: B

Verbena is one of those notes my skin really loves to amp, so any scent with more than a few drops of it tends to turn into lemon-drop candy on me very quickly. This one is no exception, but at least the warmth of the amber and ginger led it a bit of interest, so as verbena scents go, it's a fairly nice one. And once the verbena blast fades, after about half an hour or so, it's very nice.... A lovely spicy-herby amber, with just a bit of that lemony verbena edge to add freshness; a bit like a greener and slightly more complex version of The Lion. It's a very late spring/early summer type of scent, and seems quite nice for around Beltane (suitably enough for its Celtic inspiration, I suppose). There is a slightly soapy element to it -- not sure if that's the grass, or maybe the "summer rain" note... Scents that are supposed to smell like rain, snow, etc. usually just smell like chemicals to me, and can turn an otherwise nice scent into dish detergent or air freshener. But thankfully, here that element is not too strong. All in all, quite likable, but not a standout... If it didn't have the soapy edge and the verbena was a bit less, this might be a case of love rather than like -- amber, ginger and sage are all excellent notes on me. As it stands, while this is definitely the time of year to enjoy using up the imp, I don't know if I'll order more when it's gone... Grade: B, almost B+