Lycanthrope

Mmm... this is hot cocoa and pumpkin, all whirled together, reminding me of grabbing a cup of hot spiced cocoa, standing on a porch and watching the wind whip through what's left of the leaves on the trees... Starts off very much 'cocoa!' with a warm undercurrent, a touch sharp and definitely a blend of nuts. The pumpkin makes another appearance, adding a slightly earthy base to the blend. After it dries down a bit, the nuts assert themselves more and remind me of shortcake dipped in milk chocolate. Mmm!

First pumpkin patch review from your howlin' fragrance fiend. This one came in a blue bottle as opposed to the others in my pumpkin patch, and I had to try it first because it has pomegranate, my favorite fruit in it! So... here goes! In the bottle, it smells kind of buttery, that little whiff you get off of creamy pumpkin pie filling with a very faint fruitiness, tart, at the top, with a slight crust-like vanilla basenote. On skin, it obtains a very fruity, berry-gum like note (just like what I get out of Swank), and it reminds me a lot of Double Bubble. Dries down with a very distinct, 'squashy', mildly sweet aroma. Definitely interesting. I don't know if it's something I'd wear every day, but I do find the blending like an upscale Halloween blend.

Very lavender, and as was mentioned before, seems to have a lemony scent, which to me immediately suggests palmarosa! (cymbopogon martinii!) A very fresh lavender blend but it immediately hits centers in my brain that tell me to just not care. In a good way. I think this works better on me than Somnus for knocking me out at night. New bedtime scent...

So far, all of the Somnium blends definitely have lavender as a component, but each of them has a different blend of oils that the lavender 'rests' upon. In this case, it starts off as a bright, herby lavender with rosemary as was mentioned before, but this goes right into a pure sweet bay (pimenta racemosa?) with a hint of the past florals overhead. It's very appropriate, as sweet bay is often associated with dreams and dreamwork. It actually smells amazingly magical to me at least, and I actually slept a little later than usual because I kept sniffing at my arms

Quite a nice blend. I stress out far too much, so though this may not be my 'travel' blend, it's definitely useful when the lists of organisms and diseases gets a touch overwhelming. That said, Safari starts out a very bright and crisp true lavender. On my skin, it stays as such but creeping into it are two very calming aromatherapy components - what I believe are rose geranium and palmarosa. It's definitely a soothing lavender with a slight floral kick. Pleasant, and for me at least not sleep-inducing but quite calming.

Following Ultraviolet is like trying to sing Happy Birthday on stage after Pavarotti has stepped off. This smells like the Gothic Reading Room at Duke, i.e., a room filled with old artifacts, ancient bibles and texts all meticulously cared for in a room that has all the moisture pulled out of it so you can feel the dryness on your skin. My sniffer's a bit off today, on account of a mild illness, but I can still detect a mixing of dry, much more deciduous woods mixed with a snap of paper... yes, paper, not cedar or some wood, but the processed and aged mulch of parchment, all blended with a subtle hint of smoke and oxidation for that truly old aroma. The leather is definitely the type that embraces these relics, not the kind one wears out clubbin'.

Dublin starts off on me a very light, green, deciduous forest, complete with branches and bark... and then my chemistry turns it into cotton candy. No kidding, this noticeably goes sugary on me, which is really strange. Oh well...

Even the oil is green! Spruce. Then eucalyptus. Then lavender. It may have a kiss of jasmine, and a hint of pepper spiciness. Very herbal and plant-earthy.

This is the first BPAL that literally made me pop the cap on the imp again and shake my head to clear away the scent. I have no idea what did it, but I really doubt that I can wear this - I think it's that same brush of 'dead' that I detected in Zombi. A little splashed on my binder and I wiped it up with my fingertips and it's turned to soap on me. Soap... of death! So, initially it smells slightly alcoholic and winey, but more of a brighter, pink or white wine. It also has a dirty, dusky earth aroma but it's cut with something... kind of soapy, citrussy, something that makes my stomach twist in a little knot and go 'you are NOT putting this on.' A few minutes later, it's gone completely, utterly soapy sweet. I can even taste the alkalinity of a bar of soap on my tongue as I sniff again. I think this may be my first BPAL scent that I'm not going to give the usual wrist test, as it's just... too visceral a reaction against it for me. Sorry Nosferatu!

Gonna keep this short, because otherwise I'll ramble on about the glory of Jolly Roger for ages. Bottle: salty sea spray, just like the description suggests! On me: Starts off a wonderful burst of salty ocean air, followed by the scent of bark that's been marinating in said air for years. A touch of leather and pirate rum, and I'm standing at the helm of a frigate, heading to go fire cannons at Spanish ships or whatnot. Mmm.

Aw, sage makes an appearance in this aroma, which seems to be prominent in Aeval, too, and it definitely overamps and hangs on my skin. Starts off quite sagey, with a very faint violet undercurrent that I could only pick out because I was primed to think 'purple' and 'violet' by the description. There's also a slight wet fruit plumminess to the scent that can't in any way compete with the herbal, potent blend of green leafy incense that is led by sage. It pretty much stays constant on me, sort of weird for a BPAL blend, and settles into a very green, herbal sage violet. It's not me, though. Swap!

Wow. This isn't what I expected from the description - it comes out and stays on me a pure sage from the get-go to the last whiffs of this Fae Queen. In the bottle, it's a grassy, slightly astringent aroma, which I didn't place at first as sage, but my, is it! On me, the sage amps up a touch and overwhelms all the rest of the fragrance and it takes quite some time for it to even become remotely obedient. There's a slight sweet, pungent floral twist which may be the sweet pea, but I detect very little tonka. It doesn't have that same tonkaness (word?) that I love in Sybaris. It's too sweet, and stays sagey on me to the end. Swap!

I consider Yggdrasil to be a less dark, less pine-forest and woods aroma than Wolfsbane, although they definitely both share that woodsy, bark and leaf aroma. Yggdrasil begins on me slightly spicy, definitely green with a streak of mint. Like most mints, this fades quickly and I'm left with a light, grassy green aroma with a kiss of floral and maybe a touch of spearmint's sweet mintiness. Over time, this turns to a delicate cedar and pine, but it's still mostly like delicate forest air more than Wolfsbane, which is the essence of the woods asserting themselves. Pleasant, but has little to no staying power or throw on me.

In the vial, this is initially a sort of woodsy, wet grapefruit - definitely an aquatic citrus, but not a really bright aquatic like Sea of Glass, but more of a sultry citrus. It starts off with a burst of something damp and floral, but that fades into a dark, amber-like note with salty overtones, and just a touch of floating driftwood or sandalwood. Over time, it fades relatively quickly but leaves behind a definite seashore/saltspray aroma, what with the salty air, slight sweetness of the seaspray, and pieces of lumber worn smooth by the ocean and time. I love you, R'Lyeh!

In the bottle smells almost like nothing, a little whiff of sweetness, a suggestion of cotton candy and dough, but not much else. Reminds me of a french cruller, an eggy, slightly floury aroma brushed with sugar glaze. On skin, it's definitely funnel cake! It gets butterier (word?) and butterier over time, and then all of a sudden turns a touch salty and sugar sweet at once, much like a blend of cotton candy and popcorn salt. Speaking of popcorn, the blend has gone butter-kernal on me, which freaks me out in a good way. In the end, it becomes a non-gauzy vanilla on me (hoo-hah!) with a delectable butter base. Sweet and salty! Mmm. This is the fair in a vial, it just takes some time to develop.

I'm going to be really bad at this, because, well, this smells very much like Snake Oil to me, but... 'different,' which I hope to be able to get across. In general, I love this scent much more than Snake Oil, because the vanilla in SO turns to gauze on me. In the vial, it's amazingly resinous, sweet and ambery, without any strong vanilla aroma which makes me quite happy. There's a hit of strong spiciness, the same kind of spices I love in Snake Oil that I have to fight the vanilla for to enjoy... But, there's definitely a darker, sharper and sweet coconut musk aroma in addition to all this (the 'ambrette' mixing with coconut?) that sets this apart from Snake Oil, in that it lends a sweet bite to the spicy, amber goodness. The scent feels warm, sultry, and edible, and a tiny drop lasts forever. I want more.

In the bottle, this is definitely a strong cocoa scent spiked with a citrus, orange perhaps, with an undercurrent of sharp and tart fruits as well, probably lemon and the pomegranate. It's also one of the thinnest BPAL oils I've ever come across, just like water! It's an odd orange-bronze color as well. On skin, this is immediately chocolate oranges on me, and stays that way for a good twenty minutes... Over time, the oranges fade and are replaced with a sort of mysterious, creeping figgy fruit blended with a milky, powdery chocolate. This isn't Centzon's dark chocolate, but a creamy chocolate. Haven't tried Bliss yet, so no comparison with that available. After about an hour, there's definitely pomegranate, mixed with a brush of fig. The cocoa/chocolate has become a basenote, quite soft and not obtrusive. As complicated, foody and tasty-sounding as this scent is, it just doesn't... mesh with me all that well. I do like it, and will use it, but it's definitely chaotic, unconventional, and as such I won't find myself reaching for it often.

From my first official CN order! In the vial, House of Mirrors reminded me very strongly of that same citrus/grapefruit aquatic that is used in Sea of Glass. Applied, it retains that same slightly tart, bright aquatic note, but unfortunately to me, seems to be so similar that I don't see House of Mirrors as being that uniquely different. On skin over time the citrus doesn't really fade much, which is the same reaction I had with Sea of Glass, and there may be a hint of sweet amber, but it's not very dark, deep, or sultry, which I was hoping for. A bright scent, perhaps a less floral Sea of Glass. Like it, but don't love it.

I actually can't stop thinking 'The Body Shop' when I smell this. I think it's because it's a blend of tart red fruit and a very potent, strong sweeping alcoholic base which reminds me always of that little pot of fragrance oil they have diffusing outside their store (bad business practice IMHO since no one seems to appreciate getting whomped by cranberry-matazz or whatever it is). This is too strong on me, and reminds me more of that same diffusing aroma, which I have negative associations with due to working near one of their stores chronically. Oh well, we can't win them all!

Whippoorwill. Besides being hard to type and spell, it's a marvelous fragrance, and my first LE, ever. I stumbled across BPAL right as Springtime in Arkham was wrapping up, read the description of Whippoorwill, and tagged the foreboding birds onto Fenris Wolf. I'm glad I did! In the bottle, this is a very spicy melange of green, woods, and definitely a potent spicy pepper or ginger. On my skin, it immediately does a Hamadryad-esque shift to cinnamon, but thankfully it sweetens almost right afterwards and it steers away from one-dimensional cinnamon. I definitely get a whiff of damp moss, but it's all lightened by the sparkling spicy notes whirling above. This is a tumultous, very spicy scent that actually irritates the skin around my neck. But on my arm, this is very tasty. Drying down, it adopts a mild ginger-cookie aroma which is surprisingly foody, but that passes as well and Whippoorwill settles on my skin a pleasantly spicy, ginger-cardamom mossy green. Mmm.

Wolf's Heart goes through several phases for me, all within thirty minutes from application. I'll try my best to sort through them, I've sort of abandoned my usual format for this oil. In the vial, Wolf's Heart is definitely a mix of sweet resins and a bunch of floral and herbal notes, each of which will play on my skin one by one, as I soon found out. First Phase: Lavender, a touch of something green, and something sour and a touch buttery-acrid, which wasn't necessarily pleasant but perked me to attention. It's a touch spicy at this point, too. I think it's Dragon's Blood. Second Phase: Jasmine! Yup, that's jasmine all right. For a good ten minutes this shrieked its jasminesong with some backup singers in Dragon's Blood, that same sweet-sour resin that I detected under the lavender. Third Phase: Neroli and fennel. The jasmine actually drops back, a surprise in my experience. On my skin, jasmine is usually a diva with top billing, and drowns out everything else. Here, it's a pleasant mix of my favorite floral essential oil with a very unconventional drop of fennel or perhaps benzoin, a sharp and pungent hit. Fourth Phase and Longterm: Very, very soft neroli and orange blossom that sits near my skin. There's a touch of sweet resin still, so Wolf's Heart eventually has turned into a beautiful warm, orange-gold scent. I like it a lot! I don't have any situational testing of the oil's effectiveness, but perhaps in a few weeks. I'll update if it causes any major changes.

I seem to have general around-the-neck irritation, but just like mentioned above, it's much worse after a shower. Probably that pore thing. I used to use a lot of Bath and Body Works Splashes after showering, and then BAM stinging pain of death around my neck. A similar thing happened with me and Sybaris the other night, but elsewhere I was fine, so I'm thinking it was just oils on open pores. Also, spicier oils tend to do that to me more than not. My friend has peanut allergies and eczema, but I was looking for a good perfume to get him (it'll last him the rest of his life, I'm certain - he only needs the one!) but I am concerned about nut extracts... versus nut meat. He can eat things cooked in peanut oil, oddly enough, but he can't touch anything with actual nutmeat. Hrrrrm.

I think I must be insane. That, or my chemistry twisted this into something it's not. Or both, which isn't completely out of the question. My skin never mutates amber, though, so I don't know what's up with this. Yes, this is a lion resting on a rock, lifting his head in the cinnamon-scented, dry dusty grass... and then you notice, he's chewing on something... Juicy Fruit bubble gum. I kid you not, The Lion goes on my skin like Bubble Tape, a amber-y, bright and cacophonous pink fruity scent, even with that brush of powder they apply to keep the gum from sticking together. After letting it rest on my skin, it smells more akin to Juicy Fruit, still surprisingly sweet. Longterm drydown? That Lion's still got his chewing gum. How odd.

I admit I'm partial to this scent off the bat, as it's a wolf. And not just any wolf, a friggin' apocalyptic wolf! It's also precisely up my alley in terms of fragrance and element, as I'm a Leo. In the Bottle or Imp: Strong whiff of sandalwood, sharper woods, definitely. Also immediately there is a potent, smooth musk and sweet amber supporting and grounding the woods. The scent drips 'red.' I immediately think of very thick, resinous myrrh and amber essence simmering in an oil warmer, giving off a sharp yet sweet vapor. Wet, on Skin: A sharp bite of cedar and sandalwood accompanied with the honey pull of amber. There's definitely a touch of floral here, but it seems to be a quiet floral as opposed to blooms and blossoms. This is a subdued floral. Drying/Drydown: Dries down on my skin to a sandalwood and amber combination, warm and very sultry. This fragrance feels angry, but not in a fiery way. This is more of a simmering, resentful and cold anger. Over Time/Longterm: Stays remarkably true to the start, except that it tapers away to being more sharply sandalwood on my skin, which I don't mind. Final Verdict? I bought it unsniffed as a 10 mL and am glad I did. ETA: About the fading issue - I think that the scent melds so well with me that I stop being able to detect it as well much faster than other BPAL scents, but I definitely got a few intrigued glances in elevators and the like today. Woof!

On me, Bloodlust starts out as a very potent dark amber with a strong, strong whiff of vetiver and patchouli. Wet, it continues to express its vetiveracious (?) nature, a slightly bitter, touch corrupted wood over a rich, red aroma. This scent isn't fooling around. After about an hour, Bloodlust has sort of reigned back and becomes in my opinion just like Fenris Wolf without quite as much dry snap of sandalwood and still with a potent heat. Whereas to me Fenris Wolf feels like it simmers, slightly angry but still possessing a streak of cool, Bloodlust to me is always warm or hot, although the two are quite familiar on drydown.