bibliophile

I really appreciate that the Lab gave us enough notice of the Salon discontinuation to procure bottles/backups. I picked up bottles of Sunrise with Sea-Monsters and Cleopatra Testing Poisons tonight. My bottle of SwSM isn't perceptibly different scent-wise than it was when I first got it over 5 years ago (!!), though there's much less of it now! I have been out of Cleopatra for a while and just never got around to reordering, but am glad to have the chance to do so before it goes. It's such an unusual, and oddly lovely, combination of poison + peaches. The balance among the honey, almond, fruit, and green notes is so unique; it's sweet and astringent at the same time. I used to wear Haloes very frequently back in the days of ECWC, and went through several bottles of it during that time. I haven't been able to make it to any of the other retail-only locations in the intervening years, so I haven't had any since then. None of the blends that other people describe as similar have been anywhere near as lovely on my skin as Haloes. I hope that it and the other retail-only Salons will make a reappearance somewhere/in some form someday; I have missed/will miss them! ...but now it looks like it's not going anywhere, so no worries!!

Nepalese amber and I are BFFs, and I am a red/black musk lover, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to snag Senelion from Etsy (thanks again, Lab!) and even more thrilled with how well it works on me. The amber + musk combo is as lovely as I hoped it would be on my skin. It reminds me of a winterized version of L'Estate - the lilies and sunflowers of that blend have withered, the golden light has faded, and the lovely Nepalese amber is now grounded by deeper musks and drier notes of orris and cedar. This doesn't have a lot of throw on me, which surprised me somewhat, since I tend to amp amber as well as red musk; it stays nice and close to the skin, so I could see myself wearing this in lots of different situations. There is no sharpness to any of the notes and they blend together seamlessly. I love it now, and imagine that it will only get better with age.

A houdoun recipe dating back almost 150 years. This blend is favored by prostitutes, exotic dancers and others in the sex industry for its power to attract, seduce, and enthrall. Ensures financial gain and increased profits. I can usually do a decent job of picking out the notes in Beth's lovely and complex blends, but either my nose is broken or my skin chemistry is, because Follow Me Boy is not giving me any of the lovely honey-vanilla-dragon's blood-spicy-musky notes that I am seeing in others' reviews. On me, it smells pretty much identical to the jasmine note in Lush's Silky Underwear dusting powder, which is disappointing, since I LOVE (and usually amp) honey-vanilla-dragon's blood-spicy-musky notes. I will have to give this another try at a different time of the month (and/or using a different imp) to see if I get anything more complex out of this one.

Hmm. Paper Kite makes me think of Spooky (the old version, anyway; I haven't tried Resurrected Spooky, and I swapped my bottle of Spooky away many years ago, so I can't test the two side-by-side). I get coconut that teeters on the edge of plasticky, with a bit of mintiness in the background. The pepper keeps Paper Kite on the right side of plasticky for me. A lovely, interesting, and cooling blend!

Oh, vetiver. You never, ever work on me, and yet I still believe that somehow, someday, I will find a vetiver-containing blend that makes me smell divine. Today is not that day, and Common Jezebel is definitely not that oil. Just once, I would like to get the dry grasses to which vetiver aficionados sometimes refer in their reviews. Instead, I am getting something that might be similar to what Ondine describes above as a "shampoo" smell, but the vetiver/coconut combo is all burning plastic on me, as if someone held a match to the shampoo bottle and melted it to release the oddly sweet soapy scent inside. I can't distinguish among the apricot, red currant, and lemon sugar (all notes that should theoretically be fabulous on me) here; they are undoubtedly contributing to the sweetness I am getting from the blend, but it is an off-putting, cloying sweetness when contrasted with the vetiver. Great throw, though! And did I mention the plastic? And the burning? I can't complain too much - all of the other Metamorphosis blends have been just lovely with my skin chemistry - but this is an unfortunate exception. My CJ decant may have to flutter off to a new home.

I got this as a frimp from the Lab. Thanks, Lab! I would not have chosen this for myself, because vetiver and I are just not meant to be. I tried this on before bed, and it was mostly strong smoky patchouli with a vetiver edge through the drydown and until I fell asleep. The next morning, I awoke to find vetiver perched expectantly on my wrist. "WELL, HELLO THERE!" bellowed vetiver. "I've been waiting forever for you to wake up! Smoke and patchouli got bored and wandered off, but not me! Here I am, stronger than ever! Tonka? Spices? No, haven't seen 'em. A headache, you say? Oops. Sorry about that." So, yeah. Vetiver. If you love vetiver, you should definitely try Rumpelstilzchen.

I am so pleased with Nonae Caprotina! On my skin, it is light and sweet and delicious from the start, with no initial wet-phase sourness or gamey smell. It's a lovely blend of milk and fig, with neither predominating. I don't really get much myrrh at all - maybe just a whisper in the background that tickles my nose when I huff my wrist too deeply. I swapped Milk Moon 2005 away a few years back because, though it was lovely in the bottle, it had a chokingly strong throw on me, no matter how little I put on. I'm really happy that this one has so much less throw; it's infinitely more wearable for me. I am planning to upgrade from my decant to a bottle ASAP (though to be honest, I may have done so even if NC had not been this good on me, because that adorable little goat makes this one of my favorite labels of all time).

This one is interesting. I get what I assume must be the greasepaint - it does smell greasy on me, like some sort of industrial lubricant, almost - and a good strong dose of sugar, with a bit of booze. The sugar eventually fades, but the greasy, boozy quality lingers. I'm really glad I had the chance to try this very evocative scent, but definitely won't need more than my decant, if that... the Pink Kitty is shaping up to be my boozy, sugary Velvet of choice.

Cutting and pasting my thoughts from the East Coast Will Call thread: This doesn't have a lot of throw on me... it stays VERY close to the skin. I can't get over how authentic this smells!

I was both excited and apprehensive about the possibility of receiving this imp after seeing Bat's Day attendees mentioning honey in the Election Update thread, as very few honey blends in the BPALiverse work well on me. In the imp: The honey is the strongest note to my nose. Freshly applied: yes indeed, it's honey, with a bit of resin (maybe frankincense?) and spice in the background. But... what's this? It's not going stale or funky! It's still actually recognizable as honey! It stays true into the drydown! Drydown: Wow. This gets really faint on me as it dries, and I have to huff my arm to smell it, but the huffing yields a deliciously sweet honeyed skin scent. If only I could slather this! The honey here actually reminds me just a bit of the "honeyed milk" note in Gladdener of All Hearts, which also works on me. This is a really nice scent in its own right, and a great memento of this election (plus, the donkey label is adorable!) Definitely a keeper.

This is really, really nice. I generally enjoy Beth's lemony blends, and this one is unlike any other in my collection. I also get a fizzy citrus from this... mostly lemon, heavy on the rind, with what smells like a touch of lime. It doesn't have any of the sweetness that a citrus soda might; the fizziness reminds me more of a dry seltzer. Dry, it's astringent with an almost-herbal undertone. It reminds me a bit of Twenty-One minus the juniper, and is way more wearable for me. I will treasure this imp!

I know that I can't wear pine. It never, ever works on my skin. It steamrolls everything else. My skin chemistry + the Illustrated Woman = the Carnaval putting down stakes in a Christmas tree lot. But I am a BPAL masochist, and the other notes sounded lovely. They even smelled nice in the bottle! Wet on skin: Pine. Drydown: PINE PINE PINE. After shower: Dirty musky pine. And a headache. Oh well.

DXXXII (532) abejita's review abejita noted some similarities with Hungry Ghost Moon and Tamamo-no-Mae in her initial review; since both are on my "top 10" list, I jumped at the chance to take this bottle off her hands when it didn't work for her! Fortunately for me, I get the similarity as well. There's definitely grapefruit and ginger here, and I'm pretty sure that this blend has a white/"crystalline"/skin musk in it. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bit of sandalwood in here as well. The major difference between this CT and those two blends is the blast of melon that I get when this is wet. For those of you who get a peachy feel from T-n-M: imagine it with honeydew instead, and you'll have a good idea what this blend is like. Dry, the melon is much less prevalent; it's blending really nicely with the grapefruit, and is very similar to a lighter Hungry Ghost Moon. I love it, and am ecstatic that this bottle made its way to me!

Many thanks to allidavie for the chance to try this one! I love the way the wet phase smells on me most of all: sweet honey (or sugar cane? I get an initial flash of something almost Temple Viper-ish) and vanilla that stay sweet and rich, a ginger/cinnamon spiciness that never overpowers (or turns to red-hots), and a delicious muted musk. Unfortunately, the drydown is much less complex... just faint incense on me. Two hours in, there's nothing left. If this ever came back, I would buy lots so that I could enjoy that initial stage over and over again... but I will be passing this on so someone else can try it.

Hairy Toad Lily is indeed sweet! On me, though, it is more pink-apple sweet than purply-sweet. It's a lovely lily with an almost rosy crispness to it, and a fruity top note (which my nose is reading as apple, but it may be something else). Like savage_rose, I get a honey note as well (which makes me happy... I have been loving Beth's honeyed florals lately). It dries down to a soft, slightly powdery but still sweet, floral on me, and has decent longetivity. It is a lovely and fun blend... florals aren't usually my very favorite blends, but I could see reaching for this fairly often!

Well, I was certain I needed Singing Moon, but struggled with whether I needed its therianthropic companion, since rose and cedar can be very bad on me. I am so glad that I finally went with the The Emathides, because it is as good with my chemistry as Singing Moon is bad (i.e., very very). The amber is absolutely delicious - dark, rich, and sweet, but not cloying - almost caramel-like in its smoothness. The orchid and black currant (and the olive blossom, I think?) are mildly sweet and combine beautifully. I can get just the barest hint of rose if I huff, but otherwise I can't pick it out. I can feel the purple, dry tickle of lavender in this blend, but have a hard time distinguishing it from the overall mix as well. It's not a strongly soporific lavender blend on me, but I could definitely see this being a nice, soft, cozy scent for bedtime. The blue musk is keeping this anchored nice and close to my skin. This one is definitely a keeper, and I will enjoy wearing it! edited almost three months later to add: I have gone through 2 bottles of The Emathides since writing this review. I love, love, love it and if it weren't LE, I would probably wear it every day. It is definitely in my top 2 or 3 blends overall, and is probably my favorite for day.

My skin chemistry does bad, bad things to Singing Moon, which makes my Irish self sad indeed! For the first hour or so, I get dirt - which is not unpleasant, but not a note that generally works well on me - and a strong menthol-like note that reminds me of Chloraseptic, which is not pleasant at all. About 30 minutes into the drydown, the menthol note goes away and is replaced by a very faint sweetness, which is nice, but the first 30 minutes make this one a deal-breaker for me, I think. My North Atlantic seaspray needs will have to be met by Selkie instead.

Thank you for posting this! Mine is shamefully outdated.

This one really is a morpher! Wet, it is all light, airy, orange sweetness. As it dries, I continue to get whiffs of that sweetness; close to the skin, though, musk, amber, and sunflower dominate. Like several of the previous reviewers, I can barely smell the dragon's blood as a distinct note; it does seem to be contributing its characteristic sweetness to the yumminess wafting from my arm, though! I am another dragon's blood amper, and so this really surprises me. The subtlety of the dragon's blood, plus the light color of the oil, makes me think that there is just a teeny bit in this blend; those of you who tend to shy away from dragon's blood as a general rule may want to give this a try anyway! I can't wait to see what happens to the musk and dragon's blood as this ages. In the meantime, though, the lightness of the fresh blend will make it really nice for summer wear.

Shadwell's "mildewed raincoat" was, on me, strongly mossy with an undercurrent of linen or a similar fabric note... nothing unpleasant about it! The sweet tea and condensed milk were just lovely. The condensed milk seemed to have less "curdle potential" to me than some of the milk notes in other blends... no sourness here, just a sweet, almost coconutty note that combined beautifully with the black tea. The notes are blended beautifully, and the combination is really unusual. Is this blend a gourmand aquatic? An aquatic tea? I can't decide! The staying power was great... I was still huffing Shadwell's deliciousness from the crook of my arm 6+ hours after application. No "sullen internal energy" created here, that's for sure!

Oh, Pruno. I had best walk the straight and narrow path, because you and I don't get along at all. I am not surprised that Pruno doesn't work for me -- with the exception of rum, BPAL booze is generally bad news on my skin -- but I couldn't resist the opportunity to test this one out. About 30 minutes or so into the drydown, this isn't bad -- faint orange and tomato leaf -- but that initial wet blast of fermented fruit and champagne makes my stomach flip, and not in a good way. I agree with previous posters that, if you love the cocktail BPALs like Swank (also really bad on me!), you are likely to love this one. I'll have to send this one off to a better home!

This is a really lovely, soft blend. Iris and orris tend to work really well on me in general, but the green, herbal quality of the sage really lends an interesting aspect to this blend. Like some of the previous reviewers, I get a whiff of something almost citrusy or verbena-like from it at times, but not continuously. I tend to fear really feral musk notes, so I was wary of the civet... but to echo the majority opinion here, I would never have identified the nice, deep grounding note in this blend as civet without knowing that it was in there. This will be a nice, warmer alternative to Black Pearl and Gibbous Moon when I need an iris fix.

I was lucky enough to snag a bottle of this in a swap (thanks, GoldenRubee!) and am so glad I did. Red musk and dragon's blood are very friendly with my skin chemistry, and this blend is no exception. The overall effect is that of a soft, fuzzy, spicy musk blanket through which I get traces of creamy gardenia, but never a full-on floral blast. The overall effect is a sophisticated one -- not as overtly sensual as some of the other red musk BPALs tend to be on me, but still quietly alluring. The Unheavenly City doesn't have much throw on me, which surprised me a bit, since I tend to amp some of the individual notes. I don't have to use this nearly as sparingly as I would a blend such as, say, Dragon's Heart (but given that I will never get my hands on another bottle of this, I almost wish that that were the case, so I wouldn't be tempted to slather it on!) The longetivity of the blend is impressive -- I applied it last night about two hours before bed, and could still smell it this morning. Eventually, it turns into a natural "skin scent" on me. I must say, I really like the idea that my skin scent is unheavenly.

I got an imp of Shango when it first came out. I tested it fresh from the lab... and it was straight-up fake banana candy on my skin, which was not what I was looking for. I decided to let it age a bit before giving up on it and tossed it in my imp box... where it remained, forgotten, until now. Year-old Shango is a much better match for my chemistry -- it's much richer and spicier. I can still pick out the banana, but it's receded and is blending nicely with the other fruits. The chili pepper adds a really interesting depth and a musky feel (though, like many of the previous reviewers, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there was a dash of red musk in here as well). I am glad I kept this one around!

Hmmm. While I can smell the yummy blackcurrant in the imp, on my skin, the "slightest touch of mandrake dust" amps way up and takes over. I get no sweetness at all once I've applied it, just dusty myrrh. Off to the swap box with my imp!