aedes

I was looking to this as a prime myrrh scent. It's quite lovely and the myrrh's definitely there, though I think the general incense smells win out in the end. So, slightly off my mark, so to speak, but I think I'll definitely keep it around for days I don't mind smelling a little like a head shop

 

Edit: I tried it again after a few weeks, and I really think it's growing on me. It smells less like Nag Champa now and I can pick out those floral notes wickedgoddess talked about. Very interesting! My boyfriend says he thinks Anubis smells "sharp" to him and he doesn't prefer it, which concerns me a little. But I think this would make a great autumn/winter smell and I think I'm going to plunk an order in for a bottle of it along with the Yule scents. *sniff* mmm...

On me, I got sharp, sweet violets. Reminds me of the times we'd candy violets as a kid. It's a bit cloying and I was hoping it would calm down, and the sweetness does tone down a bit (I was just trying Joy Mojo before hand. I thought I washed it off well, but maybe not!) but it mostly just smells like light purple flowers to me. I'll try it again sometime. Spring does sound like a good idea for this scent. Maybe I'll like it more in a different frame of nose, so to speak.

Gneef! Smarties! Lots and lots of them! A veritable kiddie pool full of Smarties!

 

Actually, that IS my idea of a good time.

 

Not for wearing, it's too sweet for me to even approach my wrists. But I do think it would make great bath bombs!

At first whiff... oof!... heady! florals with a bitterness that must be the myrrh. But as soon as it hits my skin and dries, ah. The myrrh turns utterly soft and warm while the opium and narcissus tango. I thought I smelled lilac, actually. It must be in the interactions. I'd say it smells the way I thought The Raven would smell. Soft, dusty purple-black, like an old, black velvet hat. More of an evening scent, but absolutely lovely!

 

Edit: And the boy LOVED it. Like wow. Unexpected!

Yeah, I got the All-Jasmine Network here, too. Really strong. Didn't go away. It's a nice jasmine, but a one-trick pony on me.

What a quirky little scent! And how odd that everyone's reviews are different. I guess that's what happens when no components are listed!

In the imp: "Mm! Chocolate and Mint! Smells like a Girl Scout cookie"
On: the mint is still strong, but there are spices, resins, or musks; darker things behind it. It definitely has some sinus-clearing powers, like a really good herbal cough drop. Warms and darkens a little as it dries (as pretty much all BPAL scents I like do on me, for some reason), which balances out the mint a little more, which is a good thing. I'm pretty sure there's a musk in here, as my skin usually amps that stuff.

I just have to say that this is one of the many scents that make me LOVE the lab. Nowere else could you find a perfume that smells like this. I mean nowhere. It's definitely unique and I think I like it more the longer it stays on me.

This would probably be good as an all-seasons scent. The mint (or eucalyptus or pennyroyal or whatever it is!) would clear you up in the winter and warm you up with the base notes. In the summer the mint element would be cooling, but the base notes aren't so heady as to feel gross in warm weather. And it has enough playfulness and quirkyness to be fun for the transition seasons, too.

I got this because I was looking for a "mostly myrrh" scent as my chemisty generally turns myrrh all sweet and golden. But this has something in it that stays funky on me, unfortunately.

 

I definitely get the green dishsoap smell in the imp and on. I don't know if it's the juniper or the lily of the valley. I kept waiting for it to mellow out, but it keeps on ticking. It's surprisingly green and herbal - it's good to know that the scent works on some folks. Looks like I'll have to give it a pass.

 

Wait! No! Just after I posted this, I smelled my wrists again and ahhhh... there's the myrrh. Took it's time! I think I've had it on for an hour or so. Okay, scratch it off the "no" pile and put it in the "maybe." YAY!

In the imp, yep! pure Baileys.

 

On my skin it develops this odd, nutty sort of smell. I couldn't place it for a long time until I realized it smelled just like my favorite desert at my favorite Thai place - a half mango sliced over warm, sticky rice! Don't know how I got THAT! Must be something in there that reminds me of the gluten in the rice, which is quite aromatic.

 

It's a great smell, but I just can't do something so foody. It makes me hungry all day long!

Also, from note descriptions, Mad Hatter might be good. Perhaps Pain? Pain is a little simpler, I think, but is the lavendar and pennyroyal (which is quite minty).

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Mad Hatter! Yes! I was thinking Mad Hatter, but I didn't know why. It sounds worth a try.

Hm. Only things I can find with mint in them that might suit what he's looking for are:

Cathode

Ultraviolet

Undertow

Envy

 

Though I've heard tell that Vinland smells a lot like the Swiss Alps.

I definitely understand where the "dryer sheet" reputation came from, but I still like it quite a bit, as does the boy. It's clean, elevated; a piercing white star with slightly yellow-tinged edges, against a purple-black sky. It has a lot of throw, which is saying a lot, since most BPAL scents stay right on the skin for me. It's distant, but faintly warm, and alien. I definitely smell the ozone, and maybe a small bit of a warm, dark, resinous scent. I think I might have to order a bottle of this! *sniff* it's just entrancing!!

 

addendum: And it gets warmer and warmer as time passes. I went to bed last night with a gorgeous, soft, snuggly scent on my wrists. Now I know why people recommended it to me as a comfort scent! It's still there the next morning, too. My bottle-buying cherry has been broken! Yog-Sothoth is the first. Wheee!

Oh, this is one I really wish I could have liked more.

 

There's something a little too sharp in the opening stage, which I suspect is the carnation. Dry, this is too heavy and goes slightly to powder on me, with a strange sort of acrid sweetness.

 

I hate using this expression, but it does make me think of old-lady perfume...It definately has that sexual quality to it, but it's one I associate with a completely different generation. It just doesn't quite work for me.

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This was exactly my experience, too. I thought that *this* would be the one. The description sounded like everything I ever wanted. But I'm starting to realize that if I pick a scent for myself, it's doomed.

 

It started off with a high-pitched shriek of a scent, I agree that I think it was carnation. As it dried, the scent got headier and headier, a little soapy, then bang, powder. It's funny, my body turns myrrh into golden, sweet amber, and it turns amber into powder!

 

This imp deserves a loving home and someone whose skin will make it rise to its full potential. Swap pile!

Velvet came highly recommended to me, but I had my doubts. I don't like foody scents because they sort of overwhelm my senses and I can only smell the food. And I'm not a chocolate lover, either.

 

But this really impressed me! Wet, cocoa, cocoa, cocoa! Expensive, fine cocoa, but cocoa.

 

As it dried, the sandalwood and myrrh really took the show, like it did for other folks. Great for me because I really like sandalwood and my skin just LERRRVES myrrh, but turns it into this creamy, golden, amber-y smell with little or no bitterness (strange!). It's a good smell, I must say.

 

There's still a little bit of cocoa in there, but it's definitely second-fiddle. There's almost a positive/negative space thing going on here. Is it cocoa with incense, or incense with cocoa? I also definitely concur with the rich brown with gold color comments.

 

After awhile, I almost get an impression of Nag Champa.

 

I'm undecided about it in the end. I don't know if I want to wear it work for fear that the ladies I work with will want to bite off my head like a chocolate Easter bunny, or that I'll curl up in my chair and take a little cat nap. But this would be great for snuggling. Ooh! Or maybe for making a body powder with a silky, plush brown powder puff! That would just be di-VINE.

Yiiikes, soap. A gingery sort of soap, but still.

 

Drydown:

 

I gave this two trials, each time hoping it would warm up to something better, but the soap was still strong. I think the cream notes are what don't work on me, given my failures with Dana O'Shee and Snow White, but the ginger just isn't pulling its load either; it isn't the hot, spicy ginger I'm looking for, or even something soft and comforting, but just lies there in the middle of the watery, soapy cream with only a prickly hint of itself.

 

The scent makes me think of dishwater with pale yellow suds floating in it, full of someone's dishes with bits of gingerbread stuck to them, which is not what I'm going for. Alas, another for the swap pile.

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This was exactly my experience, too, I'm afraid. I even tried it twice thinking I had messed it up somehow. I had very high hopes for this scent, but:

In the vial and wet - Soap. ginger? well, a little, but mostly soap.

Dry - More soap!

Honestly, I have trouble telling this from Dial. And it's hard to tell whether or not it's still on because after a few minutes my arm smells, well, like clean arm.

This, this is an amazing scent. It's a front-runner for signature right now, I must say. And it's one of the first BPALs I've smelled where I actually agree with the other reviews! Yay! My nose isn't broken!

 

In the bottle and wet, it's quite a sharp, light olive green scent. Smells like dried sage and the hazel gives it this spooky, chilly note. Sort of gave that chill up my spine like I had seen a ghost. It's a fun smell, though I had my doubts that it would be wearable.

 

But on, oh my goodness, the warmth, the soft woods. I don't really smell roses as roses, but I think I can sense them softening the woods and dry smells. And I don't have to wait for hours to get it! It happened in under 10 minutes! The crisp, slightly antiseptic of the hazel and the snap of the dried leaves is still there, but as a faint top note. Just enough to give the scent some pick-up.

 

What a masterful blend. It's comforting and soft, without feeling sleepy, clean without smelling sharp. Like playing a lively game of Scrabble in flannel pjs with a close sister, it's relaxing but active. I just hope it lasts, and that the guy likes it!

 

Edit: After about 30 minutes, the roses really came out for me. I can really sense the base, middle, and top notes perfume places like to go on about. I like it! The roses are GOOD roses. Smells classic, but unique!

Now, it might be that some varieties of myrrh perfume oil are sweeter and gentler than the actual resin, but the idea of myrrh=sweet, frankincense=bitter seemed kind of backwards to me.

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Hm! Perhaps I was mistaken! Hah, and now I have roughly 8.2 billion imps with myrrh in them coming out to me, so I suppose I'll know for certain soon!

 

Though now I've double checked w/ Medea and it has myrrh, but no frankincense, and I could swear it had the same amber-y smell as Penitence and Cathedral did after a day at work. We shall see, yes, we shall see.

 

Now I'm going to start looking for frankincense scents!

 

Edit: Another hopeful sign for myrrh: Danse Macabre, which has frankincense, but no myrrh, smelled not-so-great on me, and nothing like those other three. Heheh, it's a fun, scientific sort of excersize to try to isolate these individual notes. Only adds wood to the fire of my BPAL addiction.

To me, one of the greenest smells in the world is green tea. If she's of similar mind, Shanghai might work.

I got a very "masculine" feel to this one, too. Smelled soapy, actually, which always reminds me of cologne. It's a very nice, woodsy cologne in my opinion, but just not lining up with my pH. I think it could be pretty sexy on a butch, lumberjack sort of guy. Perhaps an evil Brawny man? Heheh.

How neat! When I was a kid, there would sometimes be a "mystery flavor" in a pack of candy. That was a ton of fun to try to identify, nibbling off little bits at a time. It was standard practice, too, for kids in my school to close their eyes when they ate Skittles to identify the flavor. I think a lot of kids really enjoy that kind of thing!

 

Plus, BPAL does sort of have an "every flavor bean" thing going for it. Maybe I'm experiencing a bit of childhood regression when I stockpile these imps.

 

And, hm... for mom... Black Annis! wait... no, that's a bad idea. Heheh, I think the current suggestions have been great. Sudha Segara might be good. And Queen of Clubs might be interesting, too.

Awesome! More imps to move to the top of the list. Almond blast probably won't be bad, I think it was the frankincense in the blends that was coming up all harsh and bitter at the beginning. Once that was gone, all that was left was creamy, ambery myrrh. Very nice! So almonds should give a nice, smooth jump start. Bruja and Hexennacht sound solid, too.

 

Oh boy. So many imps coming to me! I think I'm going to be able to heap them into a kiddie pool and start rolling in them a la Cartman.

 

"mmmm... BPAL imps... feel so good against meh skin"

Awesome! That does help. Thanks!

Just a (hopefully) quick question. I'm a relative newbie to perfumes, and I haven't ever smelled myrrh by itself before, so I wanted to check with the pros before putting in an all-myrrh order.

 

I've tried a few imps now, and a lot of the notable ones (penitence, cathedral, and medea) start off differently, but then after about 3 hours all mellow out to almost the exact same warm, slightly sweet, amber-y smell. Since myrrh is the common ingredient in the three, that's what I assumed it was.

 

It's not the scent I originally intended on going for, but I guess my skin really likes it, and it smells nice, so why not work with your skin, right?

 

So, if it is myrrh, are there any particular scents you'd recommend? I like the end result of Penitence and Cathedral, but those first three hours sort of made my nose curl with the bitter, resiny scents. I'd like to avoid that in the future. Medea suprised me with how nice it smelled, even when wet. Definitely smelled like a candle or perfume shop on me. Comforting and wonderful, though I'd prefer it as a room smell as opposed to a personal one. Anubis, Wings of Azrael, and Bastet sound interesting. I'm mostly looking for a good myrrh (or whatever it is)-based scent that doesn't have the initial bite.

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. patchouli smells positively awful on me, so that would be the only real stricture. Velvet and Nyx also sound interesting, though I'm not a big chocolate fan and florals turn to powder very easily on me. It might be interesting to see myrrh and musk together, since my skin seems to amp both. Which would win? Two scents enter, only one scent leaves. Bwahahaha!

This came to me in a set of other imps that I wanted to try. The description sounded way too heady, dark, and womanly for casual, nerdy, blonde-haired little me. I was ready to trade it away unwhiffed, but got curious.

 

BOY was I glad I tried it! I'm really liking it! Perhaps even more so than the scents I chose for myself. Wet, I get lovely, rich, but not too rich, slightly purple smells, but there's something in there that also smells like cinnamon to me. Maybe it's the woods and the myrrh. I'm finding myrrh really sings on me and stays on when everything else is gone. This is probably the best smell when wet I've found so far of the imps I've tried.

 

Drying, the spices and herbal scents come out more and more, layered on top of what must be the currants. This scent so far smells EXACTLY like the perfumery my mom would take me to as a little kid in Long Grove, IL. There are so many different, wonderful scents reaching out from wooden cabinetry, or so it smells. It also smells a lot like a candle shop.

 

I'm really enjoying this one. It would be great for the holidays - smelling a bit like spiced plums or mulled wine. I'd say the colors evoked for me are a variegated plum / olive / gold / sienna. *glee!*

Whoa, either my nose is broken, I have the skin of an alien, or something strange happened to my imp, because I'm still not getting the ashy, smokey smell I was hoping for.

It rushed out of the vial more than any other imp I had tried previously; strong, somewhat cloying sweet and RED, bright orangey-red. A little like either maraschino cherries or maybe orange peel over a womanly perfume smell. A little like I'd expect bright red calla lillies to smell.

Hah - actually, this is exactly how I expect Jailbait would smell. Maybe I had a mix-up? How very odd!

I would also suggest Nocnitsa. I got the emerald or dark teal base, but also a whiff of red berries floating over it. I smelled it and thought "whoa! I should tell the Jewel Tone person!"