mxtine

2011 version Damn. This is some sweet dirty patchouli! I don't know why I never got a bottle of this! I should have known that all the "ack patchouli" reviews would mean this would be a winner on me, but hey...better late than never, right? So, I opened the bottle and smelled a deep, dark and wild patchouli that was borderline vetiver-ish. However, it's sweet! There's a duskiness in the bottle that has to be ambrette seed and the gorgeous East African musk. I slathered this on the tops and bottoms of my wrist so I can get the full effect and this is where I smelled what made this sweet - a lovely warm honey. I can smell the slightly woody Gurjam balsam, but I'm not really getting any juniper or oakmoss and I have no clue what Sampson root aka Echinacea purpurea smells like. Luperci is hardcore stuff. I'm so in love with this that I want to pour a gallon of the oil in a kiddie pool and slip and slide around in it. (That would probably burn the ladybits. ) LOVE.

I enjoy seeing people's *shock! horror!* faces when I tell them I'm wearing Glowing Vulva, but that's just me... I think you can wear whatever you want if you use light application, but you can wear something like Dorian to work. It's creamy-lemony-tea is light enough to not irritate anyone around you.

Why have I never sought out this scent? Maybe because I thought the strawberry would go plasticky like it always does on my skin? Hollywood Babylon came from the Lab as a frimp that I never got around to testing. When I opened the vial, I smelled a "red" nag champa incense, and I'm surprised I didn't know right away that it was red musk. I can smell the cherry and strawberry, and a smooth amber. The heliotrope lends a golden floral note that grounds the sweetness and as I type the scent that drifted up to my nose made me think of the berry-vanilla I get from both Celeste and XCDL13. The dry down is almost pure red musk very much like The Infernal Lover but more candylike. I am the biggest red musk fangirl so this doesn't disappoint me. I may grab a bottle of this eventually.

I'm surprised how delicious Bordello is on my skin! I received this frimp from the Lab, and I never would have tried it because of the "amaretto" note. I cannot stand the smell of almond, but combined with the burgundy wine, plum and one of my favorite dark fruit notes, black currant; the amaretto smells like a dark sugared cherry. The dry down is pure black currant and dark cherry and I'm in LOVE. The only other "cherry" scent I can wear is Gothabilly and I only wear that on special occasions. I can slather Bordello with abandon after I buy a couple bottles.

I remember Karl Lagerdeld's Sun Moon Stars had heliotrope as a note, as well as orange blossom. Lolita reminds me a bit of that perfume after the initial blast of verbena fades. I like the smell if honeysuckle, but since I don't like wearing florals I don't see myself wearing this. I will say that this is a very sparkly young smelling fragrance. Not for a child, but for a teen (or preteen) discovering her sexuality. Beth really nailed this one and I'll probably keep the imp.

Floral fruit in the vial. Pomegranate and pear on my skin. It's like a fruit salad next to a bunch of gardenias and ends up smelling like generic fruity-floral hand lotion.

This smells like Fruit Loops in the vial and my skin. The lime is borderline furniture polish and there's something turning funky on my skin. Not for me.

I'm quite surprised I tested this on my skin. I don't like florals, especially violet, and I shy away from "white" musks and "white" sandalwood. I would expect the combination would be powdery and/or soapy. I tried this because of the ambergris. It smelled woodsy and the florals were soft and dewy on my skin. The scent disappeared so I tested it in my hair and that's when I could smell magnolia. It is soapy in a good way, and I agree with some others that it's nostalgic of childhood and unusually comforting. I cant imagine wearing this but I'll keep the imp anyway. It's such a pretty and ethereal scent.

Erebos smelled like TKO to me...just lavender.

This imp finally made its way to me via the Lab. I love red musk but I didn't seek this perfume out because the reviews were so different. It smells very perfumey in the vial. On my skin, it's pure nag champa incense, like if I ground up some Super Hit and smeared it on my skin. It's not grapey like some nag champa scents are (I'm looking at you, Urd) but just slightly sandalwoody incense. Red musk is non existent. I'll keep my imp, but I won't bother with a bottle.

As a red musk lover, I'm shocked that I never sought this out. I'm even more shocked to find that I had an imp untested in my imp box from hell! The oil is very sharp and dusty in the vial. I attribute this to the rosewood and/or sandalwood. On my skin, I smell the red musk and amber, which are incredibly sexy and smooth and remind me a little of Senelion. I thought there was a bit of Dragon's Blood in here but sometimes red musk will do that to my nose before it settles in. The woody background makes this masculine, which I love!! I definitely need a bottle of this to age--I can tell it will be amazing

Almond / marzipan are a couple of my least favorite notes. I'm not that sure about hazelnut either. I didn't want to skin test it after sniffing the vial, but I wanted to test out the Buttercream, Honey Mead and Rum notes. On my skin (a finger actually) this smells like honey with a splash of sour milk. I love honey, but this is nauseating and plasticky! My skin hates this...

I received a frimp of Jailbait in my BPTP Etsy box. I always wanted to sniff this but it took awhile to come my way. Sniffed from the vial, it's an intense synthetic bubble gum. Just like Bubble Yum! I usually like candy scents do I figure I'll give this the skin test...it smells more orangey on my skin, and is that cinnamon? I hate cinnamon in perfume. I kept this in for a good 30 minutes before I had to scrub it off. It's like chewed cinnamon gum and makes me feel ill.

I'm down to try anything with frankincense. I have a love-hate relationship with cinnamon (love the way it smells, but I hate it in perfume because I amp it). Violet makes everything smell like typical French-milled soap. Faustus was a frimp with purchase, and I decided to give it a skin test because it smelled a little like Frankincense & Clove hair gloss. For the first time, the frank didn't smell like dill or celery. The cinnamon is not turning into OMGREDHOTS. Violet keeps fighting its ugly way up to make this smell like soap, but the frank beats it down. I don't know if I'll ever really wear this but I'm going to keep it in the imp box to see how it smells in a year. If the cinnamon is so light now, it should be pretty much gone by then. I'm also hoping for the death of the soapy violet.

It's hard for me to describe how happy and lucky I am to be able to review Honey SN. Honey is one of my favorite notes, and I love both of the different honey notes I've noticed in The Lab's perfumes. I could be wrong, but there seems to be a sexy dirty-honey note, like the one in O and Womb Furie; and the more polleny white-honey note I get from Lady Una and Half Elf v5. This smells like a very BEESWAXY orange blossom with chamomile honey. It's the same honey note I love in the Half Elf prototype - slightly musky, herb/floral sweet, waxy and full of pollen. I *could* see myself wearing this alone, but I want to layer it with other things. Mmm, this is honey heaven! Thank you cfrancesca!

The BPTP Hair Gloss thread is here.

Wow. Thanks to Invidiana, I'm able to test one of my Holy Grail single notes. Frankincense is that strange, dill-pickle smell I got from fresh Midnight Mass and Cathedral. I couldn't wear either of them for a year because I didn't want to smell like food. This, however, has been aged for years. It's a smooth, luscious resin that almost brought tears to my eyes because it smelled so damned good. Something reminds me of my grandfather's cedar hot tub that was in a greenhouse off the basement of their Chicago apartment building, too. I wish the Lab would bring single notes back, even if just for a couple of days. I'd buy as many bottles of Frankincense as I could afford.

I've been on a BPAL buying hiatus because ever since the Weenies and Yules, I've been "meh" over everything the Lab had to offer. Furthermore, I never really thought I'd like anything from Rappaccini's Garden because I'm not into a lot of florals and haven't had good luck with frimps from this category. I received Bohun Upas as a frimp in a swap, and to my surprise it knocked my socks off! It smelled like Christmas and dark berries in the imp. I love forest scents, so I took it a step further and put it on my skin. There is so much going on that it's hard to pick out everything, but there's some evergreen, chypre, eucalyptus, a touch of vetiver, and something like wine but not grapey. It could be rum? There's definitely a sweet boozy thing going on here. As it dries, there is a bit of opium tar, cardamom, and a smooth musk that doesn't smell "black" to me. I could say this reminds me a lot of some other perfumes all morphed together - Black Forest, Luna Negra, and Saqqara (prototype). I just layered it on my other wrist with Amaterasu v2 and...... This was unexpectedly beautiful, and I'll be making an order from the Lab for a bottle!

There is a certain kind of rose that reminds me of a perfume my great grandmother wore. Whatever rose is in London is the one I mean. I actually like rose in some blends, as long as it's with resins or leather, such as Spellbound or Vamp.Goth. I can't stand rose with other florals at all...or many florals for that matter. The one note that makes me think "ack! old lady" is violet. It's a combination of it being powdery + floral that is positively nauseating. I also get the same reaction to bpal lavender, which also makes me think of how diapers (and possibly Depends undergarments) smell. ETA..some of the scents that others may classify as "old lady" such as Black Lace, Haunted, Event Horizon...to me, are "sophisticated". I love heavy stuff, some of my favorite classic perfumes are YSL Opium, Guerlain Samsara, Must de Cartier. I've loved these types ever since I was a teenager, and I'm still nowhere near "old".

Against Idleness & Mischief is a subtle honey scent. I hate to mention this because it's a prototype and not easy to find, but another one that has a light, polleny honey is Half Elf v5. Now that I think of it, that proto has a similar honey note to the one in Lady Una. It's my go-to Summer scent.

SAMHAIN: SABBAT OIL Twilight Alchemy Lab’s Samhain Oil contains essential oils, absolutes, and CO2 extracts that are organically-grown and pesticide-free, and many of the oils’ components are first distillations from small farms. This oil includes 10-year old iron-free patchouli oil, steam-distilled North African myrrh, Austrian pine needle essential oil, mugwort, tarragon, rue, Tunisian rosemary, wild crafted steam-distilled bay laurel, clary sage, and wormwood essential oil gathered from leaves and twigs. This oil was charged under tremendously auspicious circumstances during a complete lunar cycle, and was created utilizing the specific astrological aspects that will be active on Samhain 2011. I am reviewing this oil for the scent only, although I know it's not supposed to be used as perfume. In the bottle, it's all patchouli and myrrh. A little dab on my skin and the edge of my sleeve reveals a deeper, cola-like fragrance that is very similar to Schwarzer Mond, which is also very heavy on patchouli + opoponax (sweet myrrh). I also smell something a little menthol-like, but I realize that it's rosemary. I can also pick out the pine-which smells like fresh sap, clary sage, and perhaps a bit of the tarragon.

I was iffy on this blend because I haven't had much luck with chamomile and definitely no luck with orris. They always funkify any blend they are in, but I figured with red musk, Nepalese amber, cedar, lotus, and star anise--what could possibly go wrong? In the bottle, it's a murky red musk with sweet star anise. On my skin, the red musk has a sharp metallic tang that reminds me of The Elephantine Colossus, but it's quickly smoothed out by the amber and lotus. The black musk is definitely "vegetal", and the star anise makes me think of root beer sometimes. I don't get any cedar, perhaps it'll come out another day or as the oil ages. Also MIA are chamomile and orris, (which is a good thing). I'm pretty wowed by Senelion fresh from the Lab, and I can imagine how gorgeous it will be in 6 months! ETA, now that I've had more time wearing this. Every time I wear this, I notice at the end of the day a sweetness mixed with amber that always makes me wonder what I'm wearing because there's no red musk, and it takes me a few seconds to remember that it's Senelion. I know it's the lotus note. It's so beautiful.

This gloss is a lot lighter than the SO hair gloss. I can tell because when I tried the SO gloss on dry hair, using 3 squirts rubbed thru my palms and spread through my hair, it made a greasy mess. This gloss provided the perfect amount of shiny smoothness my bed-hair needed, without making it look oily. I don't get much clove from this, but the frankincense note is gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of the Midnight Mass perfume oil (which now smells a-may-zing) after a year of aging. It's not a heavy scent at all, my hair faintly smells of the gloss but it's not overwhelming. As it should be.

Baked goods always go with coffee! You're a guy so most likely you don't want to smell like a danish... I've seen a few perfumes that combine coffee and leather, so maybe a leather-dominant blend will work for you? Perhaps wood and tobacco notes would work as well? I haven't had my coffee this morning so I'm at a loss for specific suggestions other than A Bachelor's Dog and The Arabian Dance (which has a coffee note), but there are a few threads here which may be nice for you to browse thru and check reviews on some of the suggestions. Leather Smokey + leather Woodsy Good luck and welcome back!

Off the top of my head, Rose Cross was primarily rosewood to me. As a matter of fact it smelled just like the rosewood rosary my mom has.