Torrilin

I've been letting this settle for over a month. When it arrived, Black Rose was piercingly sharp, and reliably gave me a headache if I sniffed the imp. The headache inducing quality has calmed down since then, and it's no longer ferociously sharp. I still can't wear this tho, and it makes me sad . I like amber, I like rose, and I like many musks. I'm not sure which note in this doesn't like me, but I suspect the musk (don't know for sure as it's just plain "musk", and Arabian, black and some white musks have liked me in the past). When I put it on, instead of smoothing out and sweetening up the way Whip and Maiden do, it gets sharper and more disjointed . No spice, no round rich rose, just thin rose and sharp sharp musk *sigh*. My skin chemistry must hate this something fierce. Kalli

In the vial it smells yummy - citrus and tart fruit. Not really the way pomegranate taste but... The problem comes in that within 15 min of putting it on, my nose was stuffy. *sigh* Second try, it was just a bland sweet and fruity me at 20 sort of smell. Not a keeper. Kalli

Feb 19: I feel like a Strawberry Shortcake doll. The scent has strong plastic overtones, which I don't like. Under the plastic, I get strawberries and cream, which doesn't feel comfortable to me but could be nice. Mar 29: No more plastic, finally. I get the strawberries and a bit of fizzy creaminess. It's very young feeling, and I'm not drawn to it. The strawberry scent feels artificial, but a pretty good artificial strawberry. A real strawberry has a sharp, sweet scent before you bite into it. Very intense in how it strikes your nose, but not a strong scent. Then when you bite into the strawberry, you get the taste, which has a lot of layers that I can't describe very well. All throughout tho, there's the sharpness, which is very reminiscent of citrus. That's why when I do up strawberries for desserts, I season them with lemon zest and fresh grated ginger. This scent tho has none of the sharpness of a real strawberry, and lemon and ginger are decidedly out of place here. However, when you breath it in through your mouth, you do get the taste of a strawberry dipped in cream. It's as if I'm tasting through a veil of bacon fat or something tho, because all the texture has gone out. It's flat and thin compared to the real thing . I'm getting some interesting notions about what it is that I'm missing from a real strawberry. I'll have to play around with this some more mentally, but I'm pretty damn sure this scent is not a bottle for me. Interesting as hell, but not something I'd wear. Kalli

In the vial: juniper and something else I can't ID On me: Smell This! Soda Pop. The creature says "it doesn't smell like you". It doesn't smell like me now, but it does smell like me at 20. Fun walk down memory lane, but even at 20 this was not a burning passionate love type of scent. and it's already gone at 9.15. Not a keeper. Kalli

Feb 22: I tried it last night before bed and it was unsettling. The pennyroyal went grassy/minty on me, and blended oddly with the lavender. No real lime, which might have helped make it less disturbing. Update Mar 6: The scent in the vial has mellowed, and there's a hint of lavender in among the green and minty. I'll have to try this again... Update Mar 8: in the vial: a green round scent (as opposed to a green pointy scent, which is what green is more usually) with a hint of lavender just on: slightly unsettling, with round green smells, lavender and something "clean" smelling. Not unpleasant. Also not a love. after several hours: there's a powdery scent with a different texture from the musk in Fae, more round green smelling stuff, a hint of mint, and a hint of floral that reminds me of Crabtree and Evelyn shops. These are all tightly blended, so it's hard to distinguish between elements. I don't recognize anything I'm smelling. Yes, I'm labelling certain scents lavender and mint, but I'm really not sure my ID is correct. This scent plays with my mind. This is likely not a bottle scent. It's interesting, but it doesn't really sing on me. Kalli

Another eaten review: Oh! It's cute! Green tea and a bit of flowery in the imp. On, it shifts to flowery tea. Not jasmine flavored green tea, a flower like unto rose but not rose (mental note: you like peony you doofus). Sweet, yummy and not what I'd call a tea scent really. Makes me grin . It seems to have a fair bit of throw and be pretty strong on me. No sign of a headache. Not a tea I'd enjoy drinking, but definitely a perfume I'm enjoying wearing. Sadly, it doesn't pass the creature test. This is a shame, because I like this one. Kalli

Original review post got ate in the forum troubles: The first time I tried this it felt "perfumey" and a bit headachey. It also didn't seem to blend well. It seems to have settled in tho, and now it's sweet and spicey, with no headachey element. Yum. It's a lot less flat out sexy than amber usually is, and it feels like it'd make a good everyday scent. It's a *bit* less complex than I'd really prefer tho. It doesn't change and morph as much as Haunted and Maiden do, and I enjoy how those morphers wear throughout a day. There's a dry, green note that sometimes appears in The Lion, and that can be a bit unpleasant since I'm not fond of most green notes. This layers really well with Haunted. Haunted gives it depth and morph, and this mellows Haunted out so that it's less prone to overwhelm. The Lion is a very light scent, I can slather it with abandon. And do . If I slather, it lasts all day as a mellow close to the skin scent. Even with slathering, there is very little throw. If I dot it on like a heavier BPAL, it's gone fairly quickly. The Lion is a strong bottle contender right now, because it's very wearable, and there's almost no risk of overapplying. Kalli

Stupid question time... Does lavender make you feel sleepy? If yes, then most of the previous recs will probably work for you. If no, it might be better to try something else. The Bedtime BPAL thread has some really good ideas. Next stupid question... Are you keeping track of which scents give you headaches? That can be really helpful for narrowing down the suggestions you get. No point in trying something if you *know* you'll react badly to it. It's not at all uncommon to dream and not remember it. Also, if you're seriously sleep deprived, you won't spend much time in REM sleep, which is when you do your dreaming. Plus, it's pretty common for people to only remember dreams when they're woken up during the dream. So that leaves dreams interrupted by alarm clocks, or dreams so scary that they wake you up. Both cases can easily lead to not *wanting* to remember dreams, and if you put active effort into forgetting, well... You're not going to remember. So... Spend some time thinking about how you feel when you *do* fall asleep sucessfully, and try to remember that feeling. It'll help you identify if a scent is helping you reach that state. Don't just depend on scent tho, look for mental activities that help, rituals you can develop, etc. For me, falling asleep feels like I'm floating in deep water, and I get rather dizzy. It can be very disorienting, and if I panic about that, I won't fall asleep. In fact, panic can lead to feeling like I've fallen a long way, or like I'm starting to drown. Most unpleasant. If I relax into the sensations tho, I fall asleep. The exact stuff that works for me probably won't work for you. But you will find things that do work. It does take a bit of self examination and discipline tho . Once you've found a set of tools that let you fall asleep reliably, then you can work on learning to remember dreams. Kalli

I thought for sure I'd reviewed this, but apparently it got lost in the forum shuffles. That's ok tho, because the original review would've needed an edit . In the vial: a citrusy edge, but not an identifiable citrus. just a tiny tiny whiff. amber, lots. motor oil. On my skin with lotion: sweet, warm, covered in warm, sexy smelling oil, with rich thick black fur all around. very sensual. This is fairly one dimensional, with almost no morph. On my skin without lotion: sweet, warm, smokey, powder, skin covered in sexy smelling oil that was applied using a thick black fur wrap - sheared short for maximum fuzziness. It changes a lot throughout the day. Sometimes it's smokier, sometimes it's heavier on the amber. Haunted has Notions. It would like you to be dressed up and going on a date, after which you and your date will screw each other's brains out. Failing that, please be dressed up. Ok, if you won't be dressed up will you please be nekkid? Please? Haunted will also delicately scent everything you own with itself, so that unless the item has been washed several times since you wore it and Haunted together, you'll be getting whiffs of Haunted throughout the day. It really wants to be a signature scent. It's really growing on me. I'm not sure it's bottle-worthy yet, because it's *very* strong. If I apply more than 3 tiny dots, one behind each knee and one on the back of my neck, I'm overpowered with scent. For the whole day. If I were to try and apply from a bottle, I'd almost certainly get too much, and too much Haunted is overpowering . Just the right amount of Haunted is close to perfect... especially if I want the creature's attention. For daily wear, I find the best solution is use Haunted to add depth and throw to The Lion. They like each other, and The Lion softens Haunted so that you don't end up drowning in scent. Kalli

Libertine is (on me) very floral in feel. Rosewood really *does* smell a lot like rose, and the scent is all about rosewood on me. The musk seems to be there as a fixative. Of the stuff I've tried, Haunted seems like it'd be more up your alley. The black musk is dark and smoky, and in combination with the amber you get something far more complex than you'd expect for only two notes. It's also a morpher, as it changes a lot from beginning to end. Kalli

A lot of people seem to read Snow White as coconut. Dunno why, and since I react badly to lilies, I probably never will. I suspect that the blend has a "creamy" quality on some women, and they read that as coconut. Hell, I read all amber as vanilla, even tho amber doesn't really smell like vanilla at all. I've even sniffed them in succession. Doesn't help. Brain still thinks "vanilla" when it sniffs amber. Kalli

Huh. On me Embalming Fluid has enough depth that I'd be fine wearing it in winter. It's got a lovely black tea drydown that feels very wintery to me. My only issue with hot weather scents is that I apply them lightly enough that they don't overwhelm others. Heck, some scents if applied too heavily overwhelm *me*. Kalli

This scent reminds me of my mom. I react badly to a lot of mainstream perfumes, including mom's beloved Bluegrass, by Elizabeth Arden. Piercing headaches, no getting to hug my mom or even get close to her if she wore it. When mom realized how badly her signature scent affected me, she stopped wearing it except for going out, and she asked me to help her find a signature scent she could wear that wouldn't make me hurt. We tried a lot of different things, and eventually discovered that the tea scents that came out in the '90s didn't have stuff that gave me headaches. Mom settled on Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden, after trying about every tea scent on the market. In the vial: lemon, green tea, and aloe (all familiar scents from the Great Scent Search or real life) Just on: The Healing Garden Green Teatherapy, but with the Giant Vegetable Hammer softened into a hint of aloe. This was one of my favorite shower gels for a long time, but the vegetable note eventually made me give it up. after an hour or so: Elizabeth Arden Green Tea. It's not exact, but does remind me strongly of mom . Lemony fresh green iced tea. after several hours: Crabtree and Evelyn's Song de Chine. Black tea with a hint of lemon, blended into my skin. The staying power is good, and the scent is yummy on me with or without body lotion. It's light enough that I can slather a bit. Wearing Embalming Fluid is like getting a hug from my mom . Kalli

The creature loves the scent of fruit, especially peaches, with a burning, passionate love. *I* think he's on crack, but he's a guy. They're *all* on crack. So, in deference to his fondness for peaches, I ordered March Hare. I figured, worst case I'd smell like plastic apricots (which is close enough to peach for the creature). I was wrong. I don't smell like plastic apricots. I smell like cloves . I love clove. And there's a hint of apricot sweetness. And instead of being so heavy a scent that I can only use a teeny tiny dot from the imp wand, it's light enough that I can slather a bit. The only problem with the scent is we both like it so much that I don't want to try the rest of my order. Edit: *sigh* This scent has changed a lot since I got it, or my skin chemistry has. I'm not sure which yet. I should know in another couple months (TMI: I take Depo, so a "menstrual cycle" winds up being 3 months long. When I got March Hare I was in the early stages of a cycle, I'm now in the PMS stage.). Anyway, now all I get is sweet, generic fruit. No clove. No butter. *sob* Kalli

You're welcome . I'm still feeling lame coz I didn't find much. The google searches I used were: "Victoria's Secret" Victoria perfume reviews "Victoria's Secret" Victoria perfume 1989 The first search got me a date (off of www.basenotes.net, a mass market perfume review site). The second search let me find an e-tailer with the description I gave. The quotes make google search for an exact phrase, the rest gets treated normally. Very often finding the year a scent was released will buy you better quality hits, but not so much this time. Kalli

I'm drawing blanks. According to Basenotes, it was released in 1989, and that let me track down this description from Scent Profile by Jan Moran Author Fabulous Fragrances II © 2006: That's pretty damn vague, but it sounds like it's a standard citrusy topnote, floral heart, woody drydown. Perfume reviewers usually judge scents by spraying it on a sheet of paper and seeing how it develops. Since *all* perfume changes with our skin chemistry, that's not going to give clear details as to how the scent really works. Can you describe what it smells like on your friend, or can she pick up any particular notes out of her favorite scent? Lacking details, I'd throw Queen Mab, Psyche, Xiuhtechutli, maybe Belle Epoque and a couple other classic florals at her to see if anything is in the right neighborhood. FWIW, if she haunts ebay, it looks like some Victoria is still out there available for sale. Kalli

Omen's got the oakmoss and patchouli, and from what I recall, Aromatics Elixir is very heavy and woody feeling, so it's probably rather heavy on oakmoss and patchouli. Shadow looks to be heavy on woods and patchouli. Wilde has patchouli and jasmine, tho from the reviews it sounds like it's more like guy's aftershave than a heavy oriental. Greed also has patchouli and oakmoss, but the copal and heliotrope might make it too girly feeling. Aureus might be worth a try, some people detect patchouli in it. Libertine is one of the only chamomile scents the lab does, and it's got woods and florals. It pretty much only has the chamomile tho, so it strikes me as kind of a long shot. Crossroads doesn't list notes, but might be worth checking reviews on. The vibe in the description sounds like it could go in a useful direction. Sin, Anne Bonney, Dance of Death and Danse Macabre might also be worth looking at. Kalli

in the bottle: sharpish, neutral scent. Smells rather like my natural skin scent, but stronger. on, dry: smells burnt, like wood maybe? on, after ~1 hr: still smells of burnt wood, with a hint of green. Amuses me, but I'm not sure it's *love*. Feels more like the perfect thing to play with and see if it helps other yummy stuff stick around. This seems inclined to continue all day in a sharpish, greenish subtle way. 5.30 pm: faint faint faint haze of clean skin scent on my wrist On the second try, this gave me a persistent headache. It seems to get sharper and greener each time I wear it, which is a classic sign of something hating my guts and wanting to hurt me. So I'm going to chalk De Sade up as something I can't wear. It only lasts around 4-5 hours on me anyway, which is pretty short compared to the other scents I've tried. Kalli

I'm looking for light stuff too, since so far everything I've tried feels either really heavy or is light and wants to kill me with headaches. So in my last order I picked: The Dormouse Embalming Fluid Envy Cathode 21 Swank Of those, really only The Dormouse and Envy are likely to be called floral. Hrm... guess this is ok, I was just going for light. Is it all citrus that goes bad on you? I looked at your reviews and didn't see anything where citrus had gone badly wrong... In my wishlist, Shanghai, Water of Notre Dame, Leanan Sidhe, Neo-Tokyo, and Twilight sound like they might be aiming at the kind of scent you're looking for. Kalli

It depends on the guy. Mine thinks fruity/sweet scents are the best thing ever, with lavender hitting a nostalgiacly sexy button because when we first met, my usual scent was straight lavender. Either one makes him go oooh in a good way. I've checked out the thread Court Analyst/Strategist recomended, and it really highlights that guys vary. A lot. Kalli

I tried very hard to test this, but I can't give it a proper review because either the stephanotis, cherry or Lily of the Valley hates me and gives me a headache. It's probably not the calla lily trying to hurt me, since the actual flowers don't hate me. And I'm reluctant to blame the cherry since I love the way the fruit smells, but fruit scents are so light naturally... Since lily of the valley is a bulb, I suspect it. An awful lot of bulbs hate me *sigh*. So yeah. Headache. Just daubing it on myself and taking a sniff left me and the creature with headaches for the rest of the day. Kalli

On the creature: Starts off sharp with lavender and a leathery feel (assuming leather is what was doing the odd stuff in Whip). Shifts immediately into a spicy sweet scent that seems to be mostly amber and carnation. Sadly, it makes him sneeze. A lot. I'll try it Monday when he's at work, because after it dries down *thoroughly* it stops making him sneeze and just smells yummy. On me: Dry spices and herbs. Distantly sweet, and almost powdery. Very much drier than the way it smells on Bill. I'll try it again, but this is feels greeny-sweet in a not very pleasant way. This was not as strong on me as most of the other oils I've tried are, but it still lasted around 8 hours and wafted a lot. Second try: coated self in Aveeno lotion, and daubed this on cautiously. I got the glorious spicy sweet scent that the creature got *purrs*. It lasted all day and instead of drowning in scent the way I do if I apply without lotion, I got gentle wafts on occasion. Verdict: The Lab's amber likes me, and I like it. It's a sweet scent I can wear. The Lab's carnation likes me even more, and I like it. The moss note *really* likes me, but I'm not a fan of it with amber and carnation. The lavender note runs away and hides, which makes me sad, coz I love lavender. So M. le Comte is a wash. He makes the creature sneeze, and we can't have sneezing creatures. They get cranky. He doesn't smell like lavender, which is what I wanted him for. However, he taught me a number of useful lessons and is an interesting fragrance on me. If it weren't for the sneezing, I'd probably buy a bottle. As it is, I'll try some other scents to see if I can get the good elements without the sneezes. Kalli

On wet: smells greeny-sweet On, just dry: sweet fruity at the edges with a dry powdery greeny-white smell taking center stage. The throw is peach with powder. Not baby powder, just something that smells like naturally it's a dry white powdery substance. Keeps making me grin, cause this smells yummy. On, ~1 hr later: where has all the fruit gone? /cries I've got a soft greeny-white powder, with a hint of a sugary sweet floral sitting on my wrist. The powder would like to blend with my natural scent, but doesn't understand how to. The green is blending with my natural scent. And the floral would be appealing but clashes with the other two scents something fierce. If I sniff my wrist *and* a cup of creamy Darjeeling at the same time, they would all like to move in together and have babies. Without the cuppa tea around, the floral wants to fight the powder and the green to the death. I'm presuming the floral is heliotrope, the powder is the white musk, and the green is the oakmoss. None of these seem to hate me, thankfully. I haven't detected bergamot at any point in this, which is both sad and not surprising. It's a fairly soft citrus scent on me usually, so it probably got swallowed up by the peach at first and then vanished. The peach was probably the sweet fruity at the beginning, and if the bergamot was around it was helping to make the peach seem more real. All throughout the powder has almost been more of a texture than a scent btw. I *know* I'm smelling it, but it feels like powder tickling my nose. It's also giving the air around me a taste, and I'm finding it rather unpleasant :-/. Second try: layered this with Casanova. Casanova is a strong sharp green, and Fae is softening it slightly so I'm not getting a screaming headache. I seem to amp green scents, amp spices, and shift things towards the driest scent possible :-/. Third try: mixed this with lotion and *really* overdid it (spilled probably about 0.25 mLs into the lotion). White musk in aveeno lotion doesn't go horribly powdery on me, and the various elements of the scent no longer go to war. However, heliotrope appears to be one of those notes that commonly get stuck in "vanilla" perfumes. It doesn't go nasty on me, but I don't enjoy it, since I felt like I was wearing a cheap vanilla perfume and those always go *very* nasty on me. I kept expecting something to start stabbing me with a headache. The peach didn't really stick around, and I felt like the scent was sitting on my skin and not melding. Verdict: ...So uh, is there anything with Darjeeling tea, cream, white musk, heliotrope and oakmoss? Didn't think so *g*. I'll keep the imp for a while longer, but I suspect I'll be better off with a different fruit scent. The whole point of fruity is to find something the creature loves on me, and he's *very* unenthusiastic about this one. Edit Oct 12, 2006: Aging has changed Fae from a clash of notes to something entirely different. The initial stage is the scent of peaches in the farmer's market, laid against greenery. The feel is vaguely cartoony, like the scent is trying to be more real than actual peaches and greenery. Very clean in feel, with no hint of powder or floral or bergamot. As the day wears on, the scent has some fairly serious throw. Imperceptably, it shifts from being a peach in greenery, to being vanilla in greenery where the vanilla is trying to convince you that it's a peach. After around 8 hours, you're left with a soft vanillic scent, with hints of golden warmth and green. Heliotrope is often used in vanilla fragrances, and it does smell rather like vanilla. So that's where the vanilla comes from. Oakmoss is the greenery, and I've seen some descriptions of it mention an "ambery drydown". It's not really ambery, more like what a plant would be if it heard of amber from a friend and decided to try smelling like that. The musk is now undetectable, but the scent has such longevity it's obvious there is musk. Now that it's fully aged, it feels like a fruity chypre, tho it doesn't have the full chypre backbone. Really fun scent, but I'm not sure it's worth buying a bottle that would be ready to use next June or July. Kalli

Agony and ecstasy: black leather and damp red rose. The short version is, the rose hit my skin and went soft. The leather hit my skin and said "SQUEEE!" and proceeded to try to show off every nifty trick it had. I suspect I am amping the leather in this, because the rose was almost unsniffable on me. In the bottle: sharp rose, maybe one of those big Lincoln type roses On, wet: strong strong strong. I spilled a bit opening the imp, and decided to wash the excess off because it was overpowering (I have since taken to using a tissue to open imps, and this helps muchly). Sweet rose and a sharp smell like orange blossom. At this stage, the throw is ROSE, and I like. On, just dried (5.45 pm): it smells the way soap tastes. I even tried sniffing through my mouth. Tastes like soap. There are hints of rose around the edges. This may be a side effect of the washing off the excess, not sure. Usually my soap doesn't do this to me tho. Also, I have a bit of a headache around the edges :-/. 15 min later: hrm, headache is trying to be gone. more rose around the edges. This goes through a phase where it smells like a blend of oregano, lemon and cinnamon on me, then slowly fades away. By 11.45 pm it was a faint herbal scent. Whatever element makes this headachy seems to be gone within an hour. Ok, and about that slow fade thing? Right before bed, it was a soft sweet ambery sort of scent. This morning when I woke up it was a soft rose skin scent. Verdict: test again to see if the soap taste happens again, and to see if further exposure makes it more headachey. I really like the way roses smell and this is just so odd compared to what they normally do on me. I expect them to go sugary sweet and not blend with my own scent at all. This one tries very hard to blend, but has some rather weird stages. I like smelling like an herb garden tho, so this is by no means *bad*. EDIT (Jan 30, 2006): Second try... This is still on the ragged edge of headachey. Haven't gotten soap, just sharpish rose with a fair bit of throw. There's a definite green tinge to this, which makes sense. De Sade was a soft, clean green scent on me . Whip seems to take that clean and blend it with rose. I like what this blend is trying to do, but the base rose note doesn't like me and wants to make me hurt. Since I know there are other BPAL rose notes that do like me, I'm probably better off layering one that likes me with De Sade. (this is very weird tho. first try was instant headache, pain around the eyesockets that gradually receded. this try it's nowhere near that kind of pain. usually a headachey perfume gets worse as I try it, not better...) EDIT (Feb 2, 2006): ok, I've finally figured out what's going on with Whip. I'm reacting to the Lab's leather note. De Sade, Casanova and Whip all have a headachey quality on me, and the only common element is the leather. So I'm not going to order more leather blends. I seem to be able to wear Whip without having my head try to kill me, but the other two . I'll hunt around for another rose blend, since in the past notes that hate me tend to get more violent with time. This is really a pity, since when the leather note isn't trying to kill me it's a gorgeous second skin kind of green scent . EDIT (May 21, 2006): Whip continues to be safe for me, and is a somewhat bipolar scent. It hasn't tried to kill me since the first wearings. Some days it's almost all leather, other days almost all rose. I have no idea why the leather note has me reacting so oddly, but I'm not gonna complain about being able to wear Whip . Kalli

Huh. Incense like Catholic Church incense, or incense like an incense store? There are a lot of different resins used for incense, and they can give wildly different vibes *g*. Snake Oil is often accused of smelling like an incense shop, and Cathedral/Penitence/Hymn get accused of being Catholic incense a lot. Dragon's Blood is a single note of dragon's blood resin, which is yet another incense smell. There are a couple oils with Nag Champa as a note, and Cairo is kyphi, a kind of Egyptian incense. I haven't smelled a lot of different BPALs, so I'm not sure where to point you :-/. Plus everyone's skin is different. Morocco gets a lot of love, and depending on how the Lab's carnation and your skin get on, it might have some elements of what you like. If the almost minty element is important to you, Pain might work really well for adding it to an "almost" scent. Pennyroyal is a kind of mint. The clove and/or masala spices listed in the official description of the scent might also be giving you the minty vibe. Sassafrass also strikes some people as minty - its bark is used for flavoring root beer. Those notions lead me towards Gingerbread Poppet, Three Witches, and Bengal... Which is not too helpful since only one of 'em is a catalogue scent. You *may* be amping musk or musks in BPAL (Beth lists something like 24 different musk variations in her descriptions) so that may tilt things somewhat for you. Not real sure what happened with Al-Shairan, but with that one it might be worth emailing the Lab to ask about ingredients. You're probably not going to find a clone of Black Cashmere here, but you probably can find something that is fun and enjoyable due to similar elements. I'd look mostly for spicy scents, since it sounds like those are closest to how Black Cashemere is on you (mostly because you are IDing a couple specific spice/flavor notes). Kalli