edenssixthday

Khalkokorustes is love. I didn't think I'd like this. Most of the notes in it are "iffy" at best on me. Pear is usually too sweet for me, cedar usually smells like pencil shavings, champaca is usually too dry on me, jasmine usually amps on me. Somehow, the combination of all of them (plus they other notes) equals perfection. This is one of those scents that makes me realize that if I had a full bottle of this, I wouldn't need as many other perfumes as I have and maybe it's time to cull the herd a bit. The champaca and cedar temper the sweetness of the pear, while the sweetness of the pear keeps the champaca and cedar from being too dry and sawdust-like. While I've been able to wear jasmine for the past couple of years, I still have to be careful with it, as jasmine does tend to amp on my skin. For the first two hours I was wearing this, I didn't even know there was any jasmine in it. It was only when I looked at the ingredient list again that I realized there's jasmine in it and know that I know it, I think I can detect it, but barely. The staying power is above average and the throw is perfect -- subtle, but I occasionally catch unexpected wafts, which are just delightful. It's such a beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, wonderful scent that I could see smelling fabulous on a man, too. I really can't say enough about it. I'll be adding a bottle to my next order from the Lab.

Andreiphontes - This smells like cheap men's soap-on-a-rope from the clearance bin at Ross.

Signior Dildo - This scent is a perfect example of why I test even the scents that sound awful and don't smell good in the bottle. This scent's ingredient list didn't intrigue me in the least, and when I smelled it in the bottle, I was unimpressed. But I tried it on, and was instantly blown away by the gorgeousness it takes on the moment it touches my skin. The narcissus isn't present in this scent at all (to my nose, at least). The vanilla isn't the rich, warm, buttery scent I associate with most of the vanillas I prefer, but it's light and sweet, and almost floral. The dry orris and sweet violet compliment the vanilla perfectly. I can't put into words what a beautiful, feminine fragrance this is on me. It's perfect for springtime and just delightful. I'm soooo glad I tried it after all! Edited to add that my skin tends to eat up vanilla blends, but this one has really good staying power, even though it sticks pretty close to my skin after the first hour or so.

Kiss Amongst Discarded Tissues - This is a really pretty fruity-floral on me. The Indian musk seems to be the strongest note, with the mandarin rind right behind it. The blackberry is stronger on me than any of the other previous reviewers noted, and blends quite nicely with the darker top notes. The gardenia is light and since I don't usually like gardenia, I'm surprised at how pretty it smells in this blend -- not heavy or heady at all. The khus is very, very faint, and gives the scent a nice earthiness about it. The blackberry fades after the first 20-30 minutes, leaving this scent smelling less juice, and more of a darker, non-juicy fruity-floral.

Penis Admiration - When I first smell this in the bottle, it smells amazing. I am certain it is going to be the "winner" of this year's Shungas, if not the entire Lupercalia update. The smooth, warmth of the tonka and the smoky, sweet vanilla blend together to create the most gorgeous scent. In the very far background is the tiniest hint of lilac, but it's barely there. And then I put it on my skin and it all goes to hell. The moment it touches my skin, the lilac revs its engines and pushes its way to the front of the blend, and I have to say, creamy tonka-vanilla and lilac absolutely do not work together. It's just a really, really bad combination of notes. I keep hoping the lilac will settle down or that the tonka and vanilla will move far into the background, but pretty much, they all vie for the dominant place, and the end result is a really bad smell on my skin. I am so sad because without the lilac, or with about 1% of the lilac it actually contains, it could be a gorgeous scent. I wish it smelled on my skin as awesome as it does in the bottle. Oh well, that just means there's more for the rest of you, I suppose.

Prosperity of a Country - This is gorgeous. I can't stop huffing away at my skin!!! On me, it's predominantly frankincense layered on top of a smooth, dark leather. For a good hour or longer those are the only two notes that I can detect at all. My skin amps frankincense (in a good way), so it's not until it starts to step back a bit that I can detect the orris, and that's only when I'm sniffing my skin very closely. The orris gives it a light, almost powdery rootiness, and compliments the other notes perfectly. I never do smell ginger or cream -- they just don't make it past the frankincense at all. Also, I have no idea what asuhi is, so I have no idea if I can detect it or not. I don't think I smell anything that I can't identify. Anyway, this is a really awesome fragrance. It's something I would love to smell on a man, but since I wear frankincense really well, I fully intend to wear it myself, too.

Milk Chocolate, Coconut, Cardamom, Rum, and Ginger Truffle - My experience with this is very different from the other reviews so far -- from the moment I open the bottle, the dominant note by far is cardamom. It is an amazing scent! When I was in college, I was a nanny for an East Indian family and the mom of the family used to come home from work every day and make a pot of black tea on the stove that had in it slices of fresh ginger, cardamom pods, coconut milk, and sugar. It was the most amazing tea I've ever had in my life. That's exactly what this fragrance smells like. When I apply it to my skin, the cardamom is still the strongest note and ginger gives it a nice kick of spiciness. After about 45-60 minutes, I can finally smell the chocolate on my skin, and with it, the cardamom and ginger. Then, at around the two hour point, the spices have eased off significantly, and that's when the coconut really comes through with the chocolate. I never am able to distinguish the rum from the other notes. I am not much of a chocolate scent person, but this one kicks @$$ and takes names. The chocolate never at any point becomes plasticky or dusty, as it often does on me. This is by far the best "foody" BPAL I've ever encountered in all of my years of trying hundreds upon hundreds of BPALs. It is beyond awesome.

Enchanted Wood Florist - This is a very pretty floral blend that isn't a typical floral blend on me at all. It's an interesting combination of high-pitched florals (that don't overwhelm the blend at all) and soft greenery and a bit of heavy, green stemminess. It's got a breezy, ethereal quality to it and is just really, really pretty. I agree with the reviewer who said this is similar in quality to The Unicorn -- I was going to write that myself! In fact, I should just re-type the first reviewers entire review word-for-word -- I had the exact same experience as her. My skin tends to eat up the majority of fragrances pretty quickly, but this one lasted a good 11 hours or so. The throw was, of course, not so strong at the end, but at the beginning of the wear, it was quite strong, but since it's such a subtle, soft floral blend, it's not going to offend anyone around you. They're just going to think you smell like a pretty, fresh, spring day.

Needlework - When I sniffed the bottle, all I smelled was a note that's usually rotten on me -- lavender. But I got some on my fingers, so I rubbed it on my arm to go ahead and give it a shot. Once it dries down, it's actually really gorgeous! Even though I can still smell the lavender, it's faint, and the wisteria and musk are the top notes, and the lavender compliments the overall scent really nicely, surprisingly enough. I thought I'd dislike this, but it's really pretty. It's very much a springtime scent, highly feminine, and makes me think of ladies wearing flowered dresses with big hats and white gloves, drinking tea while sitting in wicker chairs on the patio in the shade of a freshly blossoming tree or two. It's a very calm and pretty scent.

Harimise - This is mostly a chestnut and rice scent on me with the barest hint of magnolia. Bummer I can't smell the rose geranium at all since that's my favorite BPAL note! This scent smells very sweet and almost vanilla-y in the bottle, but as soon as I put it on my skin, it's obvious the chestnut is the dominant note, and that is what is giving it it's warm, rich, almost buttery smoothness. The rice sweetens the scent up a bit. (I have not yet figured out what osmanthus and khus smell like, so I really don't know if I'm smelling them or not or how they play into the other notes.) This is a lovely scent that's on the foody side of things, but not overtly so. It's warm and sweet and rich. It's lovely and would make a nice home fragrance, too.

Miaiphonos - This is by far my favorite of the Ode to Mars blends. On me, it's predominantly anise, with a hint of clove and citrus. I don't smell the cumin at all. I do understand where a previous reviewer mentioned this is like the licorice NECCO wafers. I totally smell that...and that's a good thing, since NECCO licorice wafers are one of my favorite candies in the world. I wish I could put into words how awesome this is. I think it just surpassed Absinthe and The Last Squished Jellybean as my favorite licorice/anise blend. Mmmm! I love it!

The Gilman House Hotel - I wasn't too excited about this, and apparently others weren't either because in the decant group I ran, only one person signed up for this blend. I was surprised when I opened the bottle to find it smelled warm and woody. When I apply it to my skin, I definitely smell the wood notes, but they're quickly overpowered by a very green smell of must and decay, but it's not unpleasant. The longer it's on my skin, the more pleasant it becomes, and the more obvious it is how exquisitely the notes are blended. Immediately after drydown, it's fairly green, earthy, and organic, and also kind of dusty. A couple hours later, it's become a predominantly dry wood scent without much in the way of the wet and musty tones. This scent would have fit really well into the 2007 Haunted House series.

Inganok Jewelers - I would definitely love to have the ring that's on the label. So pretty! So crazy that Beth can capture the scent of stone and silver -- because that's exactly what this smells like! The stone note reminds me a lot of the stone note in Shanghai Tunnel -- earthy, but clean. The silver is bright and definitely gleams! The overall scent has a slightly powdery quality about it. When I first applied it, I only put on the tiniest drop, but the scent was so strong that I had a negative visceral response to it. After about five minutes, I just couldn't stand it, so I tried to wash it off. It wouldn't wash off, and the throw seemed even stronger after washing! About an hour later, it's settled down into something I like -- very pretty, and when I catch a waft of it, I like it better than the scent that I smell directly on my skin. It's an interesting scent, but when I want something silvery, I'll likely grab my Silver Phoenix, so I won't be keeping this one.

White Chocolate, Strawberry, and White Pepper Truffle - When I open the bottle, the first thing I smell is ultra-sweet strawberry sauce. Behind that, I smell the white chocolate. Where's the pepper? The strawberry is not the typical BPAL strawberry. If you're familiar with Isle of Eden's strawberry note, that's more of a sweet strawberry sauce -- the type served on pancakes or funnel cakes -- that's what this is like. It's DELICIOUS and I wish I could drink this bottle of BPAL. (There are a few other bottles from this update that smell like they'd taste delicious if they were really food or drinks!) On my skin, the white chocolate comes out even stronger than it does in the bottle. The strawberry and white chocolate are super sweet (and again, where's the pepper?) and gooey and sticky on my skin. Mmmm.... nom nom nom! Sadly, after about 30 minutes, it starts to take on a weird plasticky/dusty smell, which for me, is par for the course when it comes to foody blends. This is another one for the oil burner and the scent locket. If you're a sugary-sweets "foody" type, I think you'll love this. Mmmm!

Womb Furie - This is really pretty. It's exactly what you'd think it'd be -- Snake oil and honey. It's very sweet and smooth. It has the powderiness about it of O, but without the cloying qualities of O. It's got a hint of plastic about it, but fresh Snake Oil usually does on me. I like this a lot better than plain Snake Oil and I'm delighted that something in my skin chemistry changed so that I can now wear honey scents without smelling like poopy diapers. This isn't the type of fragrance that makes me want to forsake the rest of my BPAL collection, but it's really nice, very pretty, and I will enjoy wearing it, especially as it ages.

Aatos Polemoio - You know what's my favorite thing about this scent? EVERYTHING! I love that this has two notes in it that are usually pretty awful on me (cedar, black currant) and one note in it that's merely "okay" on me (saffron); yet, somehow, when they're blended together, they equal OMG AMAZING!!! I've been decanting all the scents from the Lupercalia update, and I've gone through about half of them so far, and of the first half of the update, this is by far my #1 favorite scent. I would have never guessed I'd love it so much. Cedar usually smells like pencil shavings on me and black currant usually smells like cat pee. But this blend is dark and woody and spicy and uber sexy. I think I'd love this even more on a guy, but I love it so much I'm going to keep on wearing it myself, too. It's dark, heavy, and masculine in a feminine sort of way (?!). It's got a lot of "texture" about it. This is one of those scents that makes me wonder if I couldn't just order of bunch of bottles of it and get rid of the rest of my BPAL collection. I love it love it love it love it love it!!!

Ü Mütter Museum - Seriously? People love this shizzle? Really? Honestly, I'm shocked. To me, this smells ghastly. It smells like someone made a reduction of dead people and poured it in a bottle. I washed it off, smothered my arm in deodorant, and the foul odor still worked its way through. So everyone else loves it. I guess that means I need to give it another try in a few days in case there's something hormonally wonky going on with me.

Quick Grope Under The Mistletoe - Basically, this is the Yule version of Samhain. Upon initial application, I smell lots of sweet apple and some deep, bitter evergreen notes blended with patchouli and spices like clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I also feel like there's a little bit of musk in this, as it reminds me just a tough of the delicious musk in Faunalia. As it warms up on my skin, the clove does what clove always does, and that is to push everything else behind it and take centerstage. Clove is such an attention whore, and for a while, this is all about clove clove clove, as if nothing else in the world matters except for clove! The longer this is on my skin, the clove backs off a touch and while it still remains strong, I'm able to smell the evergreen, patchouli, musk, and other spices, too. The apple is there, but barely. Again, the closest I can come to describing it is to say Quick Grope Under The Mistletoe is to Yule what Samhain is to Halloween. It's a winner and next holiday season, I'm going to use a little of this in my oil burner so my whole house smells delicious like this fragrance (and I hope the apple note stays strong when using it as a room fragrance!)

XCDL13 - Oh wow, this is amazing! It's a rich, deep, sweet, boozy vanilla. I love vanilla notes, but they usually turn to plastic/band-aid on my skin. This one, however, stays true. I've been wearing it for about 2 hours and it hasn't disappeared, whereas most vanillas that don't turn to plastic/band-aid disappear on me within 30 minutes. There is a definite boozy quality to this... kind of reminds me of what happens when you mix vanilla Stoli with cream soda. In fact, now that I wrote that, I realize that's exactly what it smells like! Mmmmm!!!! I'm so glad to have procured a whole bunch of this and no one's going to pry it from my grabby little hands! ETA: I came back to add that I applied this around 5:45pm in the evening, and could still smell it strong when I went to bed around 11:30pm. When I awoke at 6:00am, I couldn't smell even the faintest trace of it. So it wears off somewhere between the 6-12 hour point...which for me, means it has amazingly long wear, since most scents burn off my more quickly than that on my dry skin.

The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love - This smells super chocolatey in the bottle. As soon as it touches my skin, it smells like salty chocolate. It smells delicious! The most wonderful part is that the chocolate in this blend doesn't "turn" on me the way most BPAL chocolate notes do, and it stays true throughout the life of the scent on my skin. While the chocolate is salty and has a hint of heaviness about it initially, as it dries down, it really does become mostly a chocolate scent that's boosted by the faintest trace of kelp, which kind of makes me sad because I love kelp scents and was hoping it would be stronger in this, but I'm not too sad because of the fact that I finally found a BPAL chocolate scent that note only stays true, but that I like, and which lasts on my skin for a decant amount of time. All is good.

Blue Moon 2009: Brian's Interpretation - Very interesting! This is totally different from what I expected. It's incredibly white and dry on my skin -- shimmery and luminescent like moonlight. The cypress, frankincense, and iris are the strongest notes on me, giving this blend a dry, woody type of feel about it. I'm curious if the "delicate woods" note includes white sandalwood. The chamomile and Clary sage give it an herbal quality, and the moonflower sweetens it up a touch. It's really pretty, fairly subtle, and has about average staying power on me.

Raven Moon - This was so close to being a great scent that I had to try it several times before I was certain it wasn't going to work for me. With most scents, if there's even the shadow of a doubt, it goes in the swap/sale pile. This decision was much more complex than that. Black musk does not usually work on me, but in this case, it actually behaves itself and provides a really gorgeous base for all of these other lovely notes to play around in. The red chili gives the dark musk more of a red musk-type scent about it and I love the way the red chili and the spicy nutmeg interact in this scent. The vanilla and benzoin sweeten up the scent, but not in a super-sweet way; rather, they give it a sweet creamy-like quality that keeps it from being too earthy. The myrrh adds a nice bit of husky resin to the scent. The problem note in this blend is, sadly, the patchouli. I love patchouli, but it's bringing an arid dryness to this scent that is keeping it from being just perfect on me. The patchouli isn't strong, but it is still the culprit that makes this scent one I have to pass on, which is sad, because I love this other than the patchouli, and normally, I love patchouli. Good thing there are a kajillion other BPALs to love so I don't get to sorrowful over the loss of this one!

Thirteen (Nov 2009) - Like almost all of the other 13's, this one is close-but-not-quite. I do think I like this one the second-best of all the 13's, though. The prune is actually the strongest note on me, and I love it's dark juiciness that almost reminds me of a dark, syrupy honey. I don't smell the chocolate in this at all, which is awesome since the chocolate note is typically the downfall of the 13's when it comes to my particular skin chemistry. This scent is strongly floral, but not in a feminine or high-pitched way -- it's more herbal and earthy. The prune remains the strongest note throughout the life cycle of this scent. Even though I really like the prune note, there's just a bit too much prune for my test in this particular blend. Still, it's unique and pretty and it's got a lovely level of throw, so maybe I'll give it another go before I give up on it.

Lilith vs. the Giant Crab - My very first response to this scent was "creamsicle!" That's not too far off-base, but the fact is, it's more than just creamsicle. The tangerine is really bright and tangy. The tonka and ambergris give it a depth and a warmth that a pure orange-and-cream scent simply wouldn't have. The benzoin sweetens up the creaminess of it, but the dry sandalwood balances out the benzoin, which could otherwise be too sweet in this blend. The only note I can't identify is the pear, which is good since I don't usually like pear. Overall, this is a really fantastic scent and something I fully intend to get a lot of use out of this coming summer. It's the perfect bright, fruity summer scent that will keep a smile on my face and a hop in my step.

Sleipnir - This smells like cereal -- like grains and dehydrated fruit and nuts coated in a buttery-sugary glaze. I don't normally like foody scents, and they don't normally like my skin, but I am surprised to actually like this one and it behaves on me. Still, I don't tend to prefer foody scents for my personal fragrance tastes, but I am going to put a little bit of this in the dryer with my bed linens and I think it's going to make them smell really cozy and comforting and perfectly lovely.