ayelienne

I found that article; they say the Clove single note (no longer available) is the one that smells just like the cigarettes.

Samhain 2005 always feels a wonderful shade of purple to me.

Well, I've tried it twice, and I've come to the conclusion that this just isn't for me. I do like it in the mid/late afternoon when I've applied it in the morning, but in the end, I just don't see myself wearing it. I'm sure it's lovely on the right person.

How did those work out for you??

I'm saddened to report that when I finally succombed to Mata Hari's seductive siren call from my imp box, she made my eyes itch so badly that I thought perhaps she was trying to kill me with jasmine. I shan't wear her anymore and have threatened to ship her to France. Traitor!

Carnivale revisited from the Carnivale Noir series is very carnation-y on me.

We tried this one out on the husband and it started off dark and incensy and woo! sexy. Then it started to smell a bit like incense and sweaty, hairy nether regions...then it went to poo - we waited for a while to see if it would fade (because the other smells were great), but the civet was a bit over the top. I ended up giving him a bit of Puck to layer over the top, which made the overall scent much nicer on him. While he might use a drop of the imp again, I don't see a bottle of Satyr in his future. I feel about Satyr the same way I feel about uni (sea urchin) sushi; they're a bit too manly for me to try. Good for the husband, not so much for me. I supect it would be fantastic for ritual work.

I sent an imp of Golden Priapus to my dad and he really liked it, but he's scared to buy it, in case anyone asks him what he's wearing, so now he's been coming up with another name for it -- this morning he said he was thinking about calling it "Golden Phoenix" ETA: Luperci is great on my husband, it's his current favorite.

This is a very lovely white floral scent on me, very high-end "traditional perfume" -- unfortunately, traditional is not my thing. That said, if you were already wearing white musky florals pre-BPAL , then Ave Maria Gratia Plena is definitely worth checking out. I can't picture this on a guy at all, but I'm getting very little woods out of mine. ETA: I have to mention that while I'm not that thrilled with it, my husband likes it a lot.

My darling native speaker husband has confirmed you are correct, darklorelei

yes, i say yes to 13! triskadekaphiliacs rejoice! I'm completely enamoured with 13 -- it smells chocolate-y primarily, with little flashes of other scents popping out from time to time- oranges, maybe something nutty, something quasi-floral -- not sure, but it's definitely one of those "omg, must.stop.smelling.my.wrists." blends. I was worried about this one a bit when it arrived straight from the lab, it seemed a little sharp, but the couple weeks of sitting in the dark seems to have done it a world of good. I'll be slathering this one, for sure.

If I could have stripped the powder smell that my skin amped up, I would have loved it. Sadly, it was not to be. And now I have a headache. Off to swaps.

I heartily second the Bastet recommendation. I'm wearing it right now, actually.

Well, here I was thinking "ugh, no violet" after my experiences with Numb and Ultraviolet, both of which were "um NO" on me -- I'm pleased to report that I've found a violet blend that I really like. (and I'm loving myrrh, so that probably helps). I'm loving this one, actually. I really appreciate the balance of floral and non-floral notes - there's something removed about the violet/lily -- it's almost like walking past the flowers, then catching their scent lingering a few minutes later instead of the scent of the flowers being right in front of you. This, combined with the earthiness of the other notes, makes for a surprisingly pleasant and comforting blend. I'm going to keep the imp and decide if I'd wear it enough to justify a bottle. It puts me in a good mood.

Aureus and Sloth would be my two recommendations.

I thought the lab issue was going to be about how fast the CnS are going out right now. I wonder if this is due to the super-duper measuring machine they just got?

This is a very nice clean light floral - it's one of those "skin scents" at least to me, meaning that it's subtle and almost seems to emanate from oneself as opposed to being a layer of 'perfume.' I really like it, however, I've had itchy eyes for the last hour that I've had it on, but I don't know if it's directly related to Szepasszony or not. I'm glad to have tried it and would recommend it to others.

Stardust is an accurate reflection of late nights and early mornings after too much fun with glamourous friends. The sun's just starting to come up, and you're doing one of the following things: either you've just collapsed on the bed and are thinking to yourself "oh my god...that was SO much fun...." or you're still out crawling around with your rock star friends. Stardust is the scent of you spending the night backstage, in a crowd, in the VIP room, in the green room, wearing sunglasses, laughing, drinking, flirting, making out, running around, crawling in and out of taxis or limos, in hotel room parties, getting your picture taken, avoiding getting your picture taken, mingling with the groupies, talking on the tour bus after the show, hanging out with the band, being in the band. I love it.

Ok, here's the thing. I'm not really a fan of roses. One of my grandmothers loved roses. She loved the scent so much that she almost always had the "rose" aerosol can in the bathroom. And we *always* had to use it. I think she also had rose potpourri, but all I know is that the scent was regularly bowl you over, knock you down aerosol "rose" spray. And the bathroom itself was a sight to behold; this little bathroom decked to the nines: plush carpet, plush toilet seat covers, the sink wall covered in mirrored tiles, little tschotckes, towels embroidered with little snowmen at Christmas - it was over the top! I figure the whole thing traumatized me slightly and that's where my aversion to roses probably comes from. But I keep trying to get over it by giving the BPAL rose blends a chance, which brings us to our latest offering: moon rose. This was a frimp in my last order. Verdict: Not bad. It makes me think of those white fiber-optic roses where the edges would turn different colors -- this would be if it were light blue or light bluish purple.

I'm not really a fan of roses. Now that that's out of the way, here we go: In the bottle: there's something familiar here, but i can't place it. it's a very sharp, sweet smell. When I first put this on, I get a blast of sharp rose, then a wave of sweet lotus. Then everyone starts to settle down a bit, and a creamy sweet rose-tinted scent begins to emanate. The lotus really holds its own here as it sweetly and gently forces the rose to be a supporting player and not the star. Even with the roses, I wouldn't mind wearing this again at all.

Alone began spicy for me, heavy on the cardamom and did I catch a little bit of cinnamon and orange maybe? As I continued wearing it, the scent of pencil shavings emerged--Alone started to remind me of back-to-school time It's not a particularly sweet scent and it also seems to emanate a bit of prickliness energy that might encourage people to stay away a little bit (hence the Alone-ness?) At any rate, I enjoyed the imp and have decided to pass it around so others can give it a try. If I stumble on another imp in the future, I won't be disappointed.

Dana O'Shee is the smell of the atmosphere in the Land of Milk and Honey. An absolutely lovely, comforting scent that I found myself reapplying all day long, just so I could inhale deeply and then smile. Dana O'Shee is absolutely deserving of the accolades it gets.

In the vial, MEDEA smells like fancy lady's perfume (horrible description, I know), but not at all in the bright white floral way. It's the other fancy lady's perfume smell There isn't one note that is jumping out from the vial, but it's also possible that in the vial this smells like some perfume from my past. On me, it starts off with a sweet, ripe, juicy purple-ish berry smell with some incense underneath that's keeping it grounded - there's a touch of not-bright floral milling about as well. Overall, it's sort of a rich, regal, purple scent. Slightly exotic and complex. The berry sweetness tones down after a little while and is replaced by a medium sweet dark floral scent that blends wonderfully with the incense. Fantastic. This is a definite keeper and I'm toying with the idea of buying a bottle. I don't think this would be an everyday scent, but it would make for a swoon-worthy special occasion smell. I'm also having some sort of scent memory associated with this one, but I can't pin it down yet.

In the vial, this slightly sharp and crisp - leather dominates - there's a lot happening behind the leather, however, i can't call out specific notes. This starts off as "HI MY NAME IS LEATHER" - almost to the point of being too much, but again, underneath leather's big mouth, there are some other scents milling about - some citrus and some amber, I think. After about an hour, the leather finally quiets down a little bit, at which point the citrus-y floral and amber or incense step up and mingle about with the leather nicely. After a bit longer, the amber/incense (still need to figure out the difference between these two notes) moves to the fore, the leather steps back (but remains resolutely in the background, refusing to be ignored) and the citrus/sweet sort of lightly flits about. I like this blend better after an hour or so. I also think this would be a marvelous scent for a man. For some reason, this reminds me a little bit of being in Florida when I was younger. I'll have to add this imp to the husband's stack to see if he likes it. I'll definitely keep the imp - this isn't a blend I'd wear daily, but there's something interesting that makes me want to hang onto it.

I've worn Aureus several times and wondered when I'd write a review. It's a wonderfully warm, slightly overwhelming dry, rich scent. This is not at all a sweet smell. To me, it's like being in a pre-19th century library of someone wealthy and incredibly well-read - wood paneled room and row upon row of books from multiple centuries; but I'm in the library during the "golden hour" whereby the sunlight entering the room bathes the room and all its contents in this beautiful light. It's quite an evocative scent. I'd like to have my husband try this one and I'm also looking forward to trying it in the oil burner.