boomtownrat

The first time I tested Baron Samedi was the same day it arrived as a frimp. I got lots of booze and cherry, with an underpinning of something manly, a little smoky. That was lovely and I'd like to wear that version of the scent again. A few days later I tested it again, in the same spot on my wrist, and it turned into a man's shaving cream. This wouldn't be a bad thing on the right person, but I don't really want to smell that way myself. It's worth mentioning that the second test was just a couple of days after my monthly hormonal wackiness. I'll see how it goes on a third test, but this might end up going to a friend who loves bay rum and might appreciate it because of the mythology.

My hair turned silver in my 30s (I'm 40 now), and I favour sweet, woody, musky, foodie, resinous, and spicy scents. I'm mostly an anti-floral type because I get migraines from a lot of them, but there are some darker florals that I can wear without icepick head pain. No violet, ever! Before I went silver, my hair was sort of auburn/chestnut but I often dyed it black or burgundy. I used to wear Obsession (for women or for men, I loved both) or amber essential oil in my 20s, and in high school I was all about fruity drugstore perfumes and some tea rose scent whose name I can't recall.

The 2014 Womb Furie reminds me a lot of the 2011 version when it was fresh. I get deep, sweet, subtly spiced honey that doesn't morph and lasts all day. Snake Oil is kind of the grandmother of Womb Furie, in that you can tell it's in the genetic makeup but the resemblance is not pronounced. I've worn this Womb Furie three times over the last four days since I got it, if that gives you an idea of how I feel about it. Even when it was fresh off the mail truck, it glowed golden-orange and wrapped me up in its comfort. On a day when even my two-year-old bottle of Snake Oil smelled wrong to me, this new Womb Furie sailed through with flying colours. I'm tempted to order a second bottle before Lupers leave.

It makes me sad that I get very little, if any, red musk or patchouli. Those notes and the cinnamon-dusted cacao were the reasons I bought this bottle. At first it's all semi-sweet cacao, no cinnamon that I notice. Minutes later a sour sweetness emerges and I guess it's ylang ylang, but I'm still not that experienced with that note. Myrrh is in there, too. For hours and hours, the cacao diminishes and that sour sweetness takes over. The next morning, that's all there is and it's still pretty strong. Ylang ylang has just made onto my list of iffy notes and it could go either way, depending on how this ages. Unfortunately, I don't feel this is the least bit sexy even though red musk and patchouli tend to make for the most sensual fragrances on my skin. Maybe with time, I'll get more red musk and patchouli. After all, I've only had the bottle for four days and I've just tested it twice. I'll update this review if anything changes.

Never mind. I heard back from customer service and it's being sorted.

Something containing creosote, coal, and industrial waste sounds terrifying as a fragrance, in all honesty. When the Lab sent me Smokestack as a frimp, I couldn't resist giving it a test once it had settled down from shipping, but I expected I'd be washing it off within five minutes. Maybe it could work as a way to enable my husband, I thought. Then Smokestack surprised me. It doesn't take much at all -- the imp spit out a little drop onto my hand when I opened it, so I swiped that onto my other wrist. This stuff has a lot of throw, but after about a minute it mellows into a more pleasant version of Bonfire Night. Vetiver might be in there, but I couldn't say for sure. Once it's been on my skin for about half an hour, it makes me think of my dad's workshop in my childhood home, a place where I would often go to be alone. It's a nostalgic scent. "Manly, yes, but I like it too!" comes to mind. My city is in the midst of an historic winter storm, the kind we get maybe once a decade, and it turns out Smokestack was the right scent to wear on a day when I'm bundled away, safe from the snow and ice. Assuming it doesn't change much with age, I could see myself wearing this if I were going to see an industrial band play a gig, or maybe for a costume. I think the trick will be to wear it only sparingly, and probably only on my wrists. The imp will probably be enough, but I think I'll continue to wear it when I'm in the mood.

This was a frimp with my most recent order. It's not something I would have sought out, and sadly the way it dries down on my skin means I will be unlikely to test it again. The juicy, delicious burst of grapefruit that it is while wet only sticks around for about a minute, giving way to a sickly floral dryer sheet scent that I had to wash off minutes later.

My bottle arrived today and as soon as I had a sniff, I needed to put it on immediately. In the bottle Imaginer is honeyhoneyhoneyamberwoods. On my skin the honeyed patchouli emerges in a sweet embrace with the woods. So far I can't pick out any of the other individual notes besides a general impression of lightly spiced wood, maybe because it's just that well blended. It's the woodsier sibling of Feed Me and Fill Me with Pleasure. If Imaginer is this magnificent fresh off the mail truck, while I'm hormonal, then I can only imagine its future fabulous beauty. Too bad I had to fall in love with such a rare scent, but that will just make it all the more precious.

On me, Kabuki is predominantly anise to the point that I've been letting it age for months in the hopes that I can smell the red musk, which is normally a note that my skin amplifies. I mean it screams anise on me. The reviews show that a lot of people mostly get red musk or cherries, so your mileage may vary.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY Make a purchase at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday, and receive a free imp of ECONOMIC RECOVERY: a fun little blend of traditional money-generating herbs, resins, and flowers, including patchouli, ambrette seed, bergamot, Irish moss, rice flower, and thyme. This smells earthy and sweet at the same time, as the notes suggest. It's almost as if a head shop and an Asian market coexisted within the same space. Usually patchouli and bergamot are both notes that dominate everything else on my skin, but in this case it all sings more or less in unison. For now I'm not familiar enough with all of the notes to know what's what, but it positively blooms from a mossy beginning into a warm, sweet, comforting scent as it dries. Patchouli - a soft one - Irish moss, and thyme are the notes I pick out most easily. I think Economic Recovery would be a good scent to wear on New Year's Day... to bring on prosperity in the new year, of course.

I've found a chocolatey BPAL that rivals Black Temple Burlesque Troupe 2012 for my dearest affections. In the bottle, El Dia De Los Reyes (2013) is the richest hot cafe mocha with a touch of chocolate liqueur. On the skin it's almost exactly the same, but as it dries I swear I get a muskiness from it. This sticks around for a good six hours or more, unlike the short lifespan that Bliss has on my skin. It even smells delicious when I'm riding the hormonal roller coaster. El Dia De Los Reyes is blended extremely well and is one of those scents that should prompt people to say you smell wonderful, not your perfume. P.S. You can layer it with Gingerbread Snake for outrageous deliciousness, but of course it's damned delectable on its own.

Snake Oil is the scent that always feels like it's part of me. It can be sultry and it can be comforting. Fresh or aged, I love it beyond the telling of it. Gingerbread Snake is like that, but with the bonus element of making me feel like a saucy Gingerbread Woman. Yes, that's a thing now, and it's a wonderful one. She is the temptress who will seduce the innocent Gingerbread Man with her warm and spicy charms. I will need backup bottles.

Dia de Los Muertos 2012 has been my scent of choice for today's post-Halloween shopping, but now that I need to settle down and write, I might put on some Sugar Skull 2012.

Well, I was such a mess trying to scramble and get into costume for work that I forgot to pick out a bottle, so I'm wearing good old Snake Oil. I think that's appropriate enough for a Fairy Gothmother, don't you?

Hello and welcome, first of all. I haven't tried Sprinklecake, but the notes look similar enough that you might want to try Eat Me from the Mad Tea Party collection. The notes are three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants. It might be a little deeper than Sprinklecake because of the currants, but you could always try an imp first. Eat Me is a little dark and sweetly spicy on me, but very much a cake scent. ETA: Oh, and another one to consider is Cockaigne from the Wanderlust collection (down at the bottom of the page under The Phantom Islands): milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine. I can't personally give you any thoughts on it because I haven't tried it yet, but the reviews make it sound really delicious for cake scent fans.

Vasilissa is pretty in pink and feels kind of like BPAL's heir to Love's Baby Soft. She is unicorns, mauve eyelet curtains, purple ball-point ink pens, a collector's album full of puffy stickers, and a little lavender boom box. The twelve-year-old in me loves Vasilissa. This scent is pink and sweet, not floral but creamy. I'll use the imp on nights at home when I want to cuddle up in those memories, even though my 40-year-old self wears much darker scents.

Inside this sweet, pretty bottle is the scent of happy little jack-o'-lanterns all in a row, their candle-warmed innards glowing joyful pumpkin grins into the twilight as they sit on a bed of straw. Now that most people use LEDs inside their pumpkins, this takes me right back to the experience of a real, old-fashioned jack-o'-lantern. I can almost feel the autumn night's slight chill on my cheeks from a hay ride I took in elementary school. Smelling this scent on my third or fourth skin test and reading the poem again draws a few nostalgic tears out of my eyes, and I swear it's not just because I'm hormonal right now. On my skin the beeswax and pumpkin keep nudging each other out of the way to get out in front, and I swear I even smell the straw from the pumpkin patch. It stays close, so I continually bring my wrist up to my face to huff it. Theme in Yellow is one of seven or eight pumpkin scents that I own and it's somehow more subtle and yet more complex than the others. This is not buttery, baked, spiced pumpkin. It's a lovely way to remember one of the most magical nights of the year. Charlie Brown and Linus, the Great Pumpkin has arrived.

All Souls was one of the 2013 Weenies that I was craving the most, so much so that I layered Eat Me with SkekZok once or twice to satisfy my yearning for it during the time between placing my order and getting the package. I loved that layering combination and hoped All Souls would be close to it, but it isn't. The day I got the bottle I gave it a skin test and was disappointed by its chemical scent, but now it's almost a week later and things have calmed down enough for a second test. With just a dab from the cap on the inside of each wrist, All Souls gives off a pretty impressive throw while it's wet and for about an hour after it's dry. Even with a lesser throw, it's still strong enough that I don't need to apply any to my throat or behind the ears. I get very little cake from All Souls, unfortunately, but its fruity incense aroma could age well. It smells almost exactly like an incense that I burned for a while in high school, but I can't quite place which one. This is true to its inspiration. My bottle of All Souls will last for years, because I probably won't wear it often or need to apply much. I'd certainly recommend it to sweet incense fans. ETA, 5 January 2014: I thought I'd wear a little dab of this to bed, but a wave of nausea and head pain struck and I had to wash it off within minutes. My body is currently in the throes of hormonal turmoil, so I won't put this bottle up for sale or swap until I give it one more test.

I couldn't get an ideal photo this morning because I had to use my iPhone, but here's Dark Pumpkin Mead.

Usually I amp pumpkin and honey, but it turns out I amp maple even more. For most of the morning I smelled like pumpkin pancakes drenched in maple syrup, but maple wood was the only note I smelled by the end of the day. I'll try it again after it's had a few more days to settle from shipping, and I'll try layering it with another scent with a strong honey component. This seems like the kind of scent that needs time to mature. The artwork on the label is an adorable black cat. It's a beautiful little gem of a bottle and one day I think the scent will age into something just as lovely.

While wet, this is very much Snake Oil with a pumpkin note that mellows the typically strong fresh Snake Oil scent. Snake Oil of any vintage really agrees with me, but I think this is going to please even those who only like it aged. When it dries, the pumpkin is more prominent than it was in the beginning. If you ever thought you wanted a pumpkin Snake Oil, I say get it as soon as you can. Addendum: This is not buttery, but it's sweeter than raw pumpkin. I'm hoping to buy a couple of backups, because I could easily wear this daily during autumn and winter. Update on 10/7/2015: Two years later, this is pretty much a sexy spiced pumpkin cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, or Snake Oil with a shot of pumpkin, depending on when and where I wear it. It has more throw than ever, so I can just put one dab on my throat and one dab on the back of one hand (then smush both hands together) and that's plenty.

You could base your choice on one of the Doctor's companions. The Rose immediately comes to mind for Rose, but maybe that's too obvious. Anne Bonny is perfect for the fierce, adventurous River Song. Dragon's Heart makes me think of the brave, strong, doctor/warrior Martha Jones. That's leaving out many companions, classic and modern, but I have to get ready for work in a minute. The Antikythera Mechanism makes me think of the TARDIS, the Doctor's most constant companion. "Bronze gears spin inside a polished wooden case, and an entire universe dances within."

The idea of pumpkin Snake Oil has called to me for at least a year and a few months, so Snakes in the Pumpkin Patch was a purchase without hesitation. The same goes for Dark Pumpkin Mead and Theme in Yellow. Most of the pumpkin patches sound like must-haves for me, but I'm not sure about Dorian and I've never tried Alice at all. I don't think I have something that combines pumpkin with honey, one of the notes my skin loves the most, so I couldn't pass up Dark Pumpkin Mead. Theme in Yellow will be my first experience with the candle note, only my second experience with the fresh pumpkin note, and I can't resist "Halloween joy" or that poem. After some consideration over more pumpkin patches, I realized my cart was filled only with pumpkin-based scents, so I ordered All Souls. Ever since I got my bottle of SkekZok (incidentally a must-have for incense lovers, I'd say), I've been on an incense kick. All Souls sounds like it's essential for Eat Me fans. Four bottles in one order doesn't sound like much to some people, I know, but it's my biggest order to date. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I'm far from done with Weenies, so I'll either be saving up some cash for another big-for-me order by November or I'll be splitting it up into two more orders so I don't drain my bank account. Now I'm waiting on reviews for A World Where There Are Octobers, Flor de Muerto, and some others. Moroccan Pumpkin Patch and Sin in the Pumpkin Patch are almost definite purchases.

A friend got a pile of carded imps at Dragon*Con and this is one that she gave to me. Seldom one to turn down a chance to try a BPAL that I've never smelled before, I was happy for the chance to test this even though aquatic notes seldom work for me. Sometimes an aquatic note that's too strong will drive itself through my head like a freight train, but I decided by sniffing Cthulhu that I could at least dare to test it on my skin. In the imp and wet on my skin, Cthulhu smelled a lot like Irish Spring soap ("Manly, yes, but I like it too!"). It had a hell of a throw at this stage. My husband said it smelled like soap, but I should mention that he's never exactly descriptive when it comes to scents. His sense of smell isn't the greatest and he mainly just says things are "nice" if he likes them. On the dry-down Cthulhu calmed down and started to smell darker, more unfathomable, as the notes say. The Irish Spring phase only lasted a minute or two. From just a minuscule dab on one wrist, it gave off powerful waves of deep-sea aroma. For those who love aquatics, this would likely be a great hit. Once fully dry, Cthulhu was quite potent. I started to get a tingling warning pain in my head and had to wash it off. If I don't put it up for sale, I might give it to my husband or see if a friend would like it.

I finally found a BPAL that comes as close to Sinful Vanilla as I've ever found. It seems unlikely, but after Tezcatlipoca is fully dry, maybe about an hour after applying, it takes on that same spicy, musky, sweet combination. There's cocoa where there would be vanilla, so it's not a duplicate, but I get very much that same feel from it. Tezcatlipoca doesn't have the same throw and staying power as Sinful Vanilla, but the people within a twenty-foot radius of me probably appreciate that.