ReallyZeb

This is straight out of the mail so I may add more once it has settles.

In the bottle: its praline with a back kick of vetiver and nothing else
Wet: The first thing I get is the sage, and a dryness that I presume is the orris root.
Dry: As it dries, the sage stays in the forefront, very herbal. There's a depth of patchouli/vetiver but it's not overpowering. I'm not getting any currant and the praline has vanished.

Sorry, this one ended up a bit stream of consciousness!

In the bottle it is a very sharp sage with an edge of the cedarwood. Wet on my skin I get a peatiness that makes me think of a good whiskey, but the patchouli is just behind it peeking out from under. Drinking whiskey in a long established library on a rainy day somewhere in Ireland.

As it dries I'm having a problem tearing my nose away from the scent, it is gorgeous. There's a slight citrus fizz to it and the sage has softened a lot.

Gradually it softens out to a smooth herbal patchouli, so mellow and comforting that I think I will fall asleep with my wrist pressed to my nose.

There's still a faint trace in the morning.

When wet it is laundry washed in seawater, a saltier version of dryer sheets, but on me it morphs quite quickly into a fresh men's cologne scent. After half an hour or so it turns into beautiful soft sun-bleached woods with just a touch of the ocean. It only hangs around for a couple of hours but is somehow very comforting, and not particularly masculine. If a partner of mine was wearing this I'd just need to snuggle as close as possible to them.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and kind words. (I'm now trying to find some of any of them so have posted in the Wanted section)

Hi all,

 

I don't normally dabble in TALs but wondered if anyone could recommend one to deal with dread and foreboding?

 

My Dad has cancer which has metastasised into his lungs, and every time I go to visit (he lives long distance) I get worse and worse foreboding that this is the last time I will ever see him. I know at some point that will be inevitable but in the mean time, this feeling is paralysing me from doing anything useful for several days once I get home again.

 

I'm hoping someone can recommend something that might be useful.

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place or is a bit of a silly question, but I've read the site FAQ and through this thread sand I'm still at a loss!

 

I'm trying to place my first order ever from bpal, and I can't figure out the shipping at all. I just wanted to try 4 Imps, sent to my Belgian address, but the price for shipping keeps coming out to 68 dollars. That can't be right, can it? I tried switching to my California address to see if that quote would be more practical and it was normal (I'd have it shipped there if I could, but I'm not there right now). I thought that if I went through to the checkout page and filled in all of the information it'd show the correct shipping rate but it's still 68 bucks.

 

Am I doing something wrong? I can't think of how to get the shipping price to change and I just can't see how that's the right rate.

 

 

I just read on one of the Facebook groups that there's a glitch on the Lab site that's screwing up shipping for imps. Apparently bottle-only orders aren't affected but as soon as you add an imp or imps to your order, it triggers the glitch.

You also might find it more economic to post an ISO post to see if anyone has those imps, as for definite, even with the site working, shipping will be more than the price of those imps. Or alternatively, look in the Decent Circles and Group Orders section - there are frequent EU group orders to help the shipping, usually appearing just before the full moon.

First impressions - bitter chocolate with a citrus note. I could eat this! But it's fresh out of the box so more after it has settled for a few days.

When first applied, and in the bottle, this has a lot in common with Black Moths - a very dry scent, it almost rustles, and definitely conjures up black insect wings of some type. It starts differing after the drydown, where this is a spicy but still dry fruity scent. Maybe fruity like those semi-dried plums? It doesn't have a lot of patchouli throw on me, in fact the patch is far less prominent than I'd expect.

 

 

In the bottle it's minty candy floss. When applied it's sharply mint first, then sugary mint like creme de menthe.

After it dries its fruity and pink, reminding me most of Rosy Maple Moth but less citrusy, more minty. This would be a perfect early summer scent.

Freshly on, it's all perfect sea salt air on a cold day in Greenwich. Wind coming from the cleaner part of the Thames, a touch of spray in the air and the old trees covered in new leaves. It stays true to this on me after drydown and I love it.

In the bottle the main scent I get is Dorian.

 

Freshly applied, the red musk comes to the fore, with a green and spicy background, and the spice from the carnation keeps intensifying over the next half hour. I agree that a blackberry note peeps out but I do get a touch of smoke too - the sort where you just get a distant whiff on the wind in autumn.

 

It settles down to become less spicy and some honey finally appears, but that turns to beeswax on me quite soon. It kind of reminds me of a spicier Lady Una, but I think it will change once the bottle has settled down.

When wet it's a sharp lavender with a background of the rosemary and an almost citrus edge coming in as it dries. Once dry the bergamot comes to the fore with the rosemary still around. After about 30 minutes its turned into a lovely smooth blackberry and white musk which is mellow and beautiful and makes this a definite keeper. I might even need a backup.

This was the special imp from the Trading Post shirt grab bag.

 

When I was younger and I was away at school I got sick one hot summer day, and had to go lie down in the sick room. Just outside they were redoing the drive and the smell of hot sticky tar made me heave even more. Since then I try to avoid going past roadworks as it brings it all back, including the nausea.

 

This on me smells exactly like a freshly poured road and because of that it immediately made me heave.

Vanilla: Detestable Putrescence, Eat Me, Good, Hollywood Babylon, O and Mouse Circus plus you really should try Dorian even though it includes a little tea

Honey: O, Alice, Cockaigne, Crib Girls, Kill-Devil, Good,

Strawberry: Hollywood Babylon, Bon Vivant

LE recs: Mother Shub's Gingerbread Temples (ginger & honey) and Gingerbread Goblin (Gingerbread with black coconut, patchouli, and sweet benzoin), Iulia, L'Artiste du Diable (currently available), Womb Furie (LE but available almost every Jan/Feb)

 

Also look out for people selling Chaos Theory VII Gourmand bottles - you can usually find the notes for each particular bottle listed in reviews

#99

 

When it was wet it was an overpowering piney smell like floor cleaner.

 

Once dry its much much nicer. It has some dry woods - maybe cedar or something along those lines. it has a fresh, crisp, aquatic sort of note. It gives me the impression of a forest on the edge of a glacier, so fresh it almost hurts. It's not my sort of thing for perfume but I wish I had an atmo spray of this one.

CT VII Fougere #44

 

Very limey when wet, which I like, but as is usual with lime it disappears really quickly. The fougere that's left stays citrusy for a while, with a touch of lavender. Once it's dry it's subtle herbs and citrus with maybe a tiny bit of cedar.

Gourmand #153 - First I get a blast of buttered rum, then a back note of maybe cherry or bubblegum, plus a vanilla cake type background note. When it dries it's a more subtle booxy cake scent

 

Gourmand #243 - Lemon poppy seed cake/biscuits is the closest I get. The lemon is quite mellow and the biscuity thing is subtle. There's a dry savoury note which I interpret as the poppy seeds, which comes to the fore as it dries, then the lemon reappears as a slightly herbal lemon - more like lemongrass.

While it's in the bottle this is the richest, thickest honey ever and it's gorgeous. Once in the bath it is far more subtle - a gentle hint of honey and a fresh, slightly medicinal quality from the herbs. It doesn't linger though and feels rather ephemeral. I suspect if I used my bath oil as a moisturiser then the scent would stick around much longer.

When it's wet all I get is a massive lavender overdose, but it settles down pretty quickly. There's still a gentle hint of lavender, a powdery swathe of amber and gentle fig peeking through. I don't get the ylang ylang for which I'm grateful, and I can't really pick out the patch. Beautiful and unlike anything else I've tried.

Cloister Graveyard In The Snow might suit you if you can find it.

I got the ouchy burny reaction, but before I had to wash it off it smelled lovely, a not too sweet spicy resin

The first note I get is almond but this vanishes once its dry and it turns into a really light and pretty rose with just a touch of citrus. After a couple of hours the beeswaxy note from the honey is the most prominent.

 

If I dip into gender stereotyping for a minute, this would be great for a young girl.

This starts with the bitter orange note which is lovely. Once dry it rounds out and darkens somewhat - the orange is still there but it has taken a woody, masculine turn. The patchouli doesn't make itself stand out although I presume it's responsible for that. After an hour or so I can pick out the underlying tobacco. I can't find the amber or musk at all.

This would smell really good on a man I think, but I'm unsure if it will suit me - but I will keep it to see if aging changes it.

When it's wet, and in the bottle, this is all lavender and nothing else. However once it dries it turns completely to a beautiful fresh lemon oil scent, no trace of lavender at all. It stays that way for about an hour and then gradually softens. It still remains lemony but not zingy. Lemon usually disappears fast on me but 3 hours in and its still soft lemon, very slightly herbal, but starting to fade. I can't pick out elemi under all the lemon.

This is beautiful wet and for the first half hour once it's dry - a tiny touch of pear, quite a bit of coconut and a little powdery amber, but then it goes to beeswax and plastic - so sad