Kayah

I got this as a sniffie from someone off a forum purchase (thanks someone! sorry.. forgot who by now) and today organizing imps into their neat little categories I found it and looked at the level in the imp and thought... okay, do or die. Do. I swiped it in the crook of my elbow - this is where I get the truest form of the scent with my skin chemistry.. So, I'm sitting there looking at my spreadsheet and thinking, well this is a simple fragrance, two notes.. I like Beth's simple fragrances... I sniff... Patchouli.. and orange blossom. Yep that's it. Patchouli.. yes, it's definitely not the gritty, or the swarthy.. it's not very dark.. but it has some heft. The orange blossom - I am actually happy this does not go floral. It's mildly, gently sweet. Sniff more.. nice blend. It's incensy without the incense, sweet without the sugar/honey, not overly flowery despite a flower, and not very hippy despite the patch. It's floating somewhere in the middle, undulating and beckoning.. leave it to dry.. Read forums. Sniff again.. yes, very nice.. definitely has staying power and I swiped the tiniest amount I scraped out.. it's skin-close now but with my slathering it'd be wafting and slapping men around everywhere I went. They'd be doing a dog Pluto floating in the air following the scent act.. Oh yeah.. Sniff.. so good... Sniff... OMG WHERE'S MY ARM I INHALED MY ARM yes it's that good

This oil is a paradox to me. I haven't figured it out yet and I've decided to use it in a variety of situations and for a variety of intentions (all connected to joy, just.. in different contexts) So, to date. Whenever I feel kind of down, I reach for joy. The scent is very nice, like creamy sweet oranges. It doesn't morph much and disappears fairly quickly. As for the effect - well this is part of the reason I am trying it in a variety of ways. It works. I have cut it down to no other cause than the oil itself. I rage when wearing it - anger is too nice a word for this feeling. It is pure unadulterated RAGE. Rage against inactivity, against undoing. Rage against injustice, rage against stereotypes. I am filled with such rage that it threatens to burn me from the inside. First few times I put it on a weekend afternoon - I was filled with the urge to DO THINGS I have been putting off. I saw red when I realized that I was the only in the house that tried to fix things up. Last night, I thought.. I'd put it on before bed - perhaps it will give me nice dreams. Instead, I got caught up in a mental loop of an article that Beth tweeted.. I raged against the injustice of the tweeted topic (not the tweet itself) on many different levels and from many different viewpoints. It took me two hours solid to mentally go through it before I would calm down. If someone had started to talk to me about it I would have been rabid - foam at the mouth, wild eyes, everything. I would agree with the above poster, but also not - Joy is what you need it to be. It can be the pick me up and the hug, but I think, it can also be something else. To me, it is something else - it's a big red button, but one that I have not figured out how to use constructively just yet.

Sanctus and Temple of Dreams (not worn together!) Sanctus is my number 1 favourite to wear to bed. I feel like I sleep in a beautiful golden cloud, and as I tend to wake at night for moments, every time I do I inhale, smile and go back to dreaming blissfully. I *always* have very good dreams when wearing (or even a day or two afterwards as it lingers on my pillow) that one. And.. Temple of Dreams (surprise?) - I don't know, it's just a lovely blend that, again, gives me good dreams.

Damn, you just keep adding to my wishlist! I am wavering over And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt as on my skin there is no "mediocre" for incense/woods.. it's either OMFGBGHERBBHHMMm awesome or wtfisthiswashitoff! I'm not sure which one ATWAGCIE would be... It looks like I may be adding Love & Pain and Carceri D'Invenzione onto my already extensive BPAL Salon Must-Get list I currently am in the posession of two salon blends: Sunrise with Seamonsters - amazing, light, seafoamy, salty spray, delicate amber and ambergris and freesia. I love it although it does tend to disappear on me after only an hour or two. Two Monsters - it's dark, and I haven't actually properly tested it yet so have not formed a strong opinion either way other than it is interesting (that goes for all of BPAL blends however so saying so doesn't count towards anything) I have to find my list of what I still need to get and post it.. Last order included: Monna Vanna, Schlafende Baigneuse, Spirit of the Komachi Tree I will likely be getting Kyohime Changes from a Serpent, Fox-Fires, Fox Woman ... leaving her child, Cupid Complaining to Venus, Garden Path with Chickens, The Great He-Goat, Itaso Kansei ..., Lantern Ghost of Oiwa, Madonna, Philosopher in Meditation, Smiling Spider .... yeah

Benzoin, cassis bud, patchouli, rose otto, and petitgrain. It starts off distinctly rosey, with a hint of the patchouli.. Eventually the other notes come out and round themselves out against the rose.. it becomes a dirty rose, with a bit of sharpness and smokiness, yet somehow smooth and very nice. I enjoy this scent very much.

Colour me not particularly impressed with my skin chemistry. On wet, it's almonds - I register all almond as somewhat bitter so the "sweet almond" doesn't really do much to reduce that image. As it dries, the rose comes out and throws its weight around like nobody's business. I amp both almond and rose, and that's what I get from this perfume.

Wet, dry, in bottle and on skin, this smells like absinthe. I don't get any other notes on my skin. I might add that it doesn't JUST smell like what absinthe smells like, but it smells like the alcohol itself - this is as if I were sniffing it out of the bottle. It stays very close to the skin, but stays for a long time - I could still smell this hours and hours after initial application. So yeah - alcohol fans, this is for you. I don't particularly like the smell of absinthe - thankfully I didn't get it for myself but someone who does like the scent so yay for her

I have always suspected that the combination of notes, as well as the... uh.. "fixatives"(?) used to make a perfume oil smell the way it's supposed to alongside the other notes makes a huge difference. I don't know a lot about perfumery, but from what I saw in another thread that someone started about making their own perfumes, it seems there are a lot more to the mixing than just adding scent a with scent b to get a combination of ab (apparently some notes mixed with each other turn sour, or end up smelling weird, and other things need to be added if you want to get a specific scent with two uncooperative oils) So, really, I don't think it might even be just that there is a chocolate note that works or doesn't, it could be what is added to make that note smell right with, let's say, a cream note, and if it's a combination of chocolate and orange then that ingredient does not need to be put in. I have very few death notes that are always death notes if present in a scent as more than a "hint" - most of my iffy notes highly depend on what other combination is with them (This is also true of notes of awesomeness, alas.) So, yeah.. not very helpful, I know..

Kind of late in response but.. I always apply to wrists also. In cold weather, I will instead apply on the underside of the jawline almost where it meets the neck, and depending on the sweater I am wearing, my collarbone.

Ah white sandalwood you did it again! The sandalwood in here compliments the florals and turns into the most lovely, powdery floral SOAP. I do not enjoy my perfume to smell like soap, much. I enjoy soap to smell like soap and if I want to smell like soap I will go and wash myself in said soap. I wish I smelled the gentle sweetness others get.. the apple blossoms or the fig... I don't even get the lily of the valley from this.. If I hadn't looked at the notes, I could've sworn it smells like rose-scented soap. SIGH.

This is what I imagined O to smell like.. this is Smut, amped and sexed up.. This, for me, is NOT something I would ever wear outside of the house. It would be the perfume equivalent of stringing a dildo on a chain and wearing it around my neck. If I ever do wear it, this scent calls for f-me boots and a mini - it is not often that a perfume will dictate what should be worn with it. This one definitely does. When I first got this as a frimp in 2010, I smelled it, put some on my wrist, wrinkled my nose, and put it far away. The red musk was too much - the whole thing was too sharp, I got no honey out of it, and it was generally underwhelming. Fast-forward over a year.. I decide to start trying my hoard of imps, writing reviews, etc. I put it on again... This is the scent of a darkened boudoir - it's daytime, sun shining outside but the curtains are drawn and only a sliver of sunlight penetrates into the room. It's furbished with velvets, heavy silks and richly colored materials. The room smells like incense is burned here regularly - it's not smoky or overpowering, but it flavors the whole room with its presence. There is a huge four poster bed, with many pillows. On it, a naked woman lays - she is damp with sweat, and you can smell her skin - it's a warm scent: like sun-warmed caramel and musk. Smiling, she sees you and begins to drizzle honey on herself...

To me, Ekhidna is quite dark - it totally lives up to its namesake and is very dark and quite menacing.

I'm still mourning the loss of the Unicorn, moreso because it was DC'd just after I got into BPAL and I only got an imp of it. Amazingly, beautiful linden flower, that. Maybe one day..

Whoso List to Hunt is like someone doused me in rosy powder all over. Marie is another one that turns to powder on my skin. In fact, I've determined that certain types of rose, tuberose and white sandalwood = TEH POWDER OF DOOM on me so I tend to stay away from those I will be watching this thread like a hawk as I dislike stuff going to powder on me when it should feel fresh and vibrant. Thankfully I must say that Black Opal doesn't go powder - so it's definitely a skin chemistry thing.

HI ALMOND HOW R U!?... There is no such thing as a "sweet" almond to my nose. I register everything almondy as bitter, and this is no exception. Thankfully, the almond poofs into oblivion and I am left with a hazelnut/buttercream yumminess that oozes decadence. The rum makes an appearance soon afterwards and what we have then, is a partay... It gets pretty wild and someone starts burning shit in the house, just to see what will happen to it.. I smell some melting plastic, someone else is burning other stuff that isn't smoky but nevertheless wafts odd fragrance around. I'm not sure who the culprit is in this case, as all three of the identified notes look very innocent with their arms behind their backs, like chastised children. I'm not sure what to think of this one. Curiously the melting plastic doesn't dominate, as it would in other blends.. it.. melds.. with the others, and while the resulting fragrance is odd to say the least, it's not as offensive as I thought melting plastic would be. This is melted plastic WITH rum, hazelnut and buttercream. .. maybe it's the almond taking revenge for having had to leave the party early.. or the honey mead that never made a proper appearance but really wants to make itself known... either way, this isn't something I'll just wear, unless it's for another test