Moryssa

I have an untried imp of Jolly Roger. It just hasn't shuffled up to the top of the pile when I grab a random untried imp for the day. The ozone in both Tempest and Lightning make me wary of them. --M, adding all the other recs to her list... PS: allidavie: I'm glad I'm not the only one! I didn't even realize that there *were* different types of musk... until I started reading BPAL descriptions, that is.

I'm still a beginner, so I haven't tried a lot, especially LEs. The City in The Sea is on my list of things to try, and a friend is supposed to be sending me an imp of Vampire Tears. Shanghai Tunnel and F5 are also on my lists of things to try, but with them being discontinued, it's harder to get them. I'll move them up my list to search a little harder, though. Pool of Tears I'd steered away from initially because I didn't care for "Alice" too much when I tried it. Maybe I should re-think that decision now. For some reason, I hadn't really looked at The Deep Ones (I think the fact that most of the Arkham scents included the line "a sliver of mint for insanity" or something along those lines made me and be afraid of the whole line). It does sound promising now that I read the description, though I'm a little afraid of the "black algae"... Most of the ones I've tried have been the pirate-y ones, which also have leather in them. Thanks for the recommendations, everyone! --M

I don't know exactly what the lab uses in the scents that are "snow"/"ice", etc related... but whatever it is makes me nauseous. I thought it was the mint, since all the other ones I've tried have specifically mentioned mint, but mint isn't listed as a note in this one. *sigh* It's just very sour and chemically and bitter and ... I wanted so badly to like this one, too. Now I'm really glad that I joined a decant circle for the yule blends (including Snow White) instead of just buying a full bottle untested... --M

Since I don't really know what any of the individual notes in this one smell like, I can't really pick them out at all. Someone above mentioned a tangerine-y smell, and I can agree with that. it's a very sweet fruit-floral witha little bit of a kick to it. I do really like it... unfortunately, it's almost completely faded away after only abour 2 hours of wear. --M

I smell like vanilla candles. The scent really hasn't morphed that much throughout the day, although it's very faint now, after (looks at clock) 8.5 hours. I like the smell when it's candles, but I'm not quite sure I like it when it's me. --M

I've had this imp for ages, and haven't ever tried it... in the imp, I thought it smelled NASTY. No, I don't know what it smells like, just that it was vile. I've had enough experience lately with the oils changing once I put them on my skin, though, that I decided to test Somnus to see how it changed. To my surprise, I actually *liked* the scent as it was drying. I don't have avery finely-tuned nose, but I'm fairly certain that what I was smelling was lavender, and not much of anything else. I fell asleep fairly quickly last night, but I did wake up about 4:30 AM with a headache... I'm not sure if that was due to the scent or due to the fact that I had a 1-on-1 review with my boss scheduled for today and I knew I was going to get reprimanded for something. :/ (Review's over now... I was right-- I was reprimanded. It's all good, though, and we can move on.) So now I can test it again and see if the headache goes away. --M

LEATHER! Yeah, that's pretty much all I can smell. As some others have said, it has sweetened up a little since I put it on (about 2 hours ago) but it's still very strongly leather... which I can't decide if I like or not. It's definitely a masculine scent. I think this will go into the "It's ok, but it can go away if someone else wants to give it a home" pile. (On the plus side, I walked by my co-worker's desk and she said "Ooo! What are you wearing today?" I told her, and she said "I like that one... it's very clean-smelling." I responded with a because "clean" is not in any way what I'd use to describe this. LOL! Then again, with some of the stories I've heard her tell, "manly leathery scent" may = "clean". ) --M

This is exactly my experience, too. When I first put it on, my initial thought was "BLEAH! Black Licorice!" The licorice smell eventually faded on me, and now it just smells plastic-y... the "sugar-dusted latex" label fits it perfectly. This one's definitely going in the swap pile. *shudder* --M

I've recently started systematically going through my imps (well, if "reaching into the ziplock baggie of untested imps and randomly pulling one out so that it can be worn that day" can be considered "systematic"...) and I've noticed something. Every one of the ones that I'm marking "I need a bottle of this" on my spreadsheet have moss, woods, or herbs in them. Or "white flowers". I'm noticing a theme... I've made a note of all the recommendations here, and will add them to my list of Things To Try. ( Ok, there is one exception -- Manila. Mmmm... ) --M

I realize I'm replying to an old thread, but this is driving me nuts. I've just started looking into the idea of creating rollerballs/atomizers/etc of some of my imps, and from what I understand, I need to dilute or use a carrier oil (which makes sense). I know that there USED to be carrier oils on the BPAL site, but I can not for the life of me find them. Are they still available? Can somene tell me where to find them? I looked at the menu on the side of the page, and didn't see anything that seemed to fit, I did a search for "jojoba", and got 0 results... I tried randomly clicking through the different categories and scanning the lists, and didn't see anything... I tried doing a search on the forums, and couldn't find a link. I'm ready to pull out my hair here! Help? Thanks, all! --M

I have the same problem, Karen... I just got an imp of Snake Oil... and I'm not as blown away as I expected. It reminds me far too much of the incense-y smell of the Egyptian stores at the mall, which isn't necessarily a *bad* smell... just not necessarily something I want to go about my day wafting out scents of. I like the dry-down smell, but it takes to long to get there, and that incense smell never really goes away. Like Karen, I like incense-y smells in incense, but I'm not so sure about on me. I'll keep the imp and see if aging it makes it better, but I'm not holding my breath. --M

I'm still new at this, so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but this is by far my favorite of the oils I've tried. First impression: LEMON! As in "Holy CRAP, that's citrusy! " It's quite overbearing in the imp and when I first put it on. Luckily, it quicky starts drying, and morphs into something I just can't explain. It's clean and *green*. No more citrus. Yay! (I was really worried about that lemon...) I find myself sitting at my desk at work with my nose squashed up against my wrist, and I have no idea how it got there. I definitely need a big bottle of this one. Actually, I think I need *several* big bottles of this one... --M

I am so absolutely madly in love with this scent. This was one of the imps that a friend sent to me as a lure into the madness. I was intrigued by the name (one of the musicians in one of my favorite bands is named Oisin If he was wearing this, I swear he'd never make it to the stage. ) and then the description just increased my interest. Since she had a bottle on the way to her, she sent me a partially full imp. This is such a comforting scent to me... it's musky with some other sort of dry woodsy scent as well (which I'm assuming is the herbs). I'm not experienced enough yet to be able to pick out details (I'm still waiting for my first lab order) but I know that I absolutely love this and I have to find a way to get my hands on more of it. My labelling in my spreedsheet: LOVE!!! --M