edenssixthday

Sanctus - This is a really interesting scent, but very fitting for the description of the Sanctus in the VDSA book. I thought for sure this would be a high-pitched white floral scent, but it's not at all. It's floral, but it's tempered by the musk and the resins. The musk has a strong ethereal quality about it and the osmanthus gives this blend an almost honey-sweet edge to it. The frankincense is very faint, and I don't get any of the husky grittiness from it that I usually do, it's just present enough to lend a sense of dryness to the scent. The lily of the valley is, for the first time ever, more than merely tolerable on my skin. I didn't think I'd like this scent at all, but it surprised me completely. It works really well, the notes are lovely together, and while it's still not the type of scent I would normally gravitate toward, it's very, very pretty and I can see it working well on people who prefer the hazy, ethereal type scents.

Transeo - The wood, blood and bergamot are the strongest notes when I first apply this. The wood is by far the strongest of all of those notes. As it starts to dry down on my skin, I can smell the cumin, which oddly smells good on my skin as opposed to the b.o. odor I usually get from it, and the mandarin, which I adore. I wish the mandarin were stronger. There's the faintest trace of a blood note and also the juniper berry. I never do smell the orange blossom, benzoin, cinnamon, or wine. It's got a masculine cologne vibe about it without smelling like cheap drugstore cologne. While it's not a "come hither" scent for me, I still wouldn't mind smelling it on my man.

Bocal de Sang - On my skin, this is atrocious. It smells like wet dog, feet, a drip of wine, and blood. Blah. Granted, I tried it during the middle of my special week of the month, so I think I'll re-test and come back and edit my review if it smells differently on me with the next go-around.

 

 

ETA: Here's the text from page 167 of Vampires Don't Sleep Alone re: the Bocal de Sang. I hope this isn't a copyright violation to type this up. If it is, I'll gladly remove it!

 

"To prepare the Bocal de Sang, equal parts blackstrap molasses and honey are poured into a Mason jar until it is about half full. Menstrual blood mixed with red wine, cloves, cinnamon sticks, apple blossom, black cohosh root, a pair of Adam and Eve roots, red rose petals, deer's tongue, anise, sassafras, and crushed red pepper are added to this mix.

 

The spell caster must locate the vampire she is attempting to seduce, and while he is in her sight, she must let her own blood into the jar until it is full whil concentrating on drawing out the vampire's desire. The final act involves taking dust from his footprint and burning it in a mix of patchouli root and Spanish moss until it becomes like pitch, and topping the jar off with the ashes and dirt before sealing the jar with black tallow wax."

 

 

That may help give an idea of what's in this blend. I'm wearing it again right now, and I still smell wet dog, feet, blood, and wine.

Cicuta - Oh, I love this! Love it!!! It's predominantly the scent of dry roses and husky frankincense. It's very dark and romantic. It's sweetened up a touch by the saffron. The smoke is subtle, but adds a nice level of complexity and blends beautifully with the dry rose and frankincense. This is the type of scent that I would definitely associate with the old, stereotypical, romantic notions of vampires. Beautiful, sexy, dark, and very romantic.

Silenti - This is a lovely, subtle floral. It has a hint of dryness from the olibanum, and bit of dry greenery from the Spanish moss. The lilac and wisteria are very subtle and note overwhelming at all, as they usually are on me. The myrrh adds a touch of depth to it. Overall, this is a lovely scent, very subtle and pretty.

Orange - candy-sweet orange, almost like orange soda without the carbonation. Wait...this isn't just any orange, this is mandarin orange! And there are definite hints of amber in this and possibly vanilla. Something about it reminds me distinctly of 51. In fact, I wore Orange yesterday, and wore 51 today and I definitely get a similar feeling, however, Orange is the most awesome BPAL I've tried and while 51 is reminiscent of it, it doesn't come close to it in awesomeness. Orange has incredibly long-lasting staying power and throw. I'm really amazed because citrus blends usually wisp away on me in a matter of minutes, but the amber (?) in this grounds the fresh mandarin scent and it behaves as if I glued it on and I can smell it swirling around me all day - and that's just with the tiniest dab of it applied (because a tiny dab is all I've got. Boohoo!)

 

Orange is amazing. There's absolutely nothing in my collection I wouldn't give up for more Orange. (note: this is not a swap offer, just a statement to show the extremity of my love for this fragrance!)

 

ETA: I think there's green musk in this. There's something in it that reminds me so much of 51 and Lincoln Tunnel Vortex that I think it must be green musk. Or something.

So many other people noted a musk scent, but I don't smell that at all. I smell incense and dry woods -- white sandalwood, frankincense, resinous woods. Really lovely, subdued, sincere, and serious.

Soap. Soapy soap. Sudsy, soapy, detergenty, laundry soap. It's so uber-soapy I have to wash it off.

Green Party - This opens up with a blast of fresh greenery - mostly grass cuttings and cucumber and maybe a bit of green tea? As it starts to dry down on my skin, the most incredibly gorgeous vanilla note comes out. I can't believe none of the other reviewers have mentioned vanilla, because that's exactly what it is on my skin -- sweet, sugary vanilla. It has the most lovely level of throw, and I catch wafts of it around me. The grass and cucumber fades quickly, but the vanilla is bolstered by something green that I'm guessing is the green tea...maybe with a bit of sugar? I usually can't stand "green" scents, but I'm NUTS about this one. I'm desperately in love with it.

Lair of Nefarious Misdeeds Atmosphere Spray - Ooooh, sexy! Sexy sexy sexy!!! Oh so sexy!!! And let me tell you how sexy this is! It is soooo sexy! Fabulously sexy!!!! Oh, and it smells like oakmoss and leather, has the tiniest hint of smooth ambergris warmth, and in case I haven't mentioned it, it is full of sexy!!!

 

 

The Dole of the King's Daughter - For a split second, when I first put this on, I thought I smelled frankincense, then I realized that it must be the scent of the dragon's blood, rose, and earth mingled together. Once it's on my skin, the rose and lily are the strongest notes. For once the lily doesn't amp on me and overpower everything else. The notes blend together beautifully to create a deep and sensual scent, that is romantic, innocent, earthy, and incredibly sexy all at the same time. I love this. I really love it. And I can't believe that dirt note is behaving on me. I didn't try this scent until now because I thought it would be awful due to the lilies and dirt. This once again proves that with BPAL, you just never know.

Lotus Moon 2010 - With the potential exception of the pomegranate, there's nothing about this blend that should go wrong on my skin, but altogether, everything about it is wrong. The lotus comes across and screamingly high-pitched and the red sandalwood and amber grate against it instead of grounding it. The husky frankincense is almost night, but seems to be be fighting with the opium note and the ensuing smokiness is just weird. And then there's the rose otto, sweet little rose...she's gone a little soapy on me this time. What I thought was going to be true love has turned to a woody-resiny-soapy-floral. Blah.

Thirteen (13): February 2009 - On my skin, this is a total and complete wreck. It smells like someone had a rancid disaster in the kitchen. It's entirely allspice and thyme, each of which has it's wonderful place in the world of fragrance and food, but not together in this scent. It actually makes me think of the musty old corner of my great-grandmother's pantry where she'd kept her spices for years and years, and the subtle but pervasive odor of ancient mixed spices. Sense memory-wise, it's an awesome scent. For a personal perfume, it's awful on me.

Nightmarchers v5 - I get dark, heavy, tropical soap?

Zombie Apocalypse v4 - This is the scent of buttery and spicy cake with a filling of eggy custard. It's very foody and as with most foody blends, there's a hint of plastickness lurking around the edges. It's rich and almost savory in it's eggy nuttiness. It's a little too heavy on the butteriness, which also brings in the suggested of artifically-buttered popcorn. It's got so much potential but just isn't working right on me.

Kaidan - This is a really pretty scent. The rose and plum blossom remind me a bit of Snooty Rose, but adding the resins and a bit of smokiness to it makes it a completely different scent. It's soft and pretty and heavy in a dark, deep, but highly feminine way. I really love how these notes blend together. Great fragrance!

Morphô - When this is wet, it smells like it's going to end up smelling like every other commercial cheap mall store floral spray. It's heavy on the jasmine, which is actually nicely sweetened by the honey. Even though I just planted delphinium in my yard, I actually have no idea what they smell like (what? I look at how pretty they are, I haven't bothered to stick my nose in them yet!), so I don't know if I can smell that or not. There is something remotely grainy about this blend, and I wonder if that's the ambrette seed -- another note I'm not familiar with. The sad part of this is the white ginger, which utterly destroys the whole blend for me and is exactly what makes this smell like a cheap body spray to me. I'm not a fan of white ginger. Without it, I might like this more. I'm kind of impressed by the way the jasmine and honey blend together. I like it. Now I want a honey-drizzled jasmine fragrance.

The Nameless City Drive-In Theatre - This is a masculine, clean cologne scent. It's got a ton of metal in it, a bit of air and grass, a hint of leather, and a big dab of musk. It's definitely not my type of scent, but it fits the inspiration and I can definitely see this smelling awesome on just the right kind of guy.

Ching Shih v4 - I can't identify any specific notes, but the overall impression is that it's a musky, floral, herbal scent. I put it on before bed and found it very soothing and calming.

Ma'at v17 - This is definitely the scent of a warm, dry desert. There's something almost savory about the scent -- it's a dry scent, yet there's something thick and sweet running through it that I have smelled before, but I can't place it for the life of me. There is a bit of spice, but it's not the typical nutmeg, clove, cinnamon type spices. I have no idea what it is, but it gives this blend just the slightest hint of pizzaz. It's an interesting scent, but not for me.

Moon of the Terrible - Lavender is my age-old nemesis, so I don't have high hopes for this scent. So I'm pleasantly surprised when I apply it, and it's mostly lychee with lavender, and as much as I also don't go crazy over lychee, they really compliment each other awesomely! I actually think I LIKE this blend!!!(???!!!???!!!) I don't know how that happened. It's fruity and herbal and floral and... whoa. What's that? Cat pee? Did someone put blackberry or black currant in this? That's sure what it smells like to me. I'm so sad... I thought I finally found a fun lavender (and lychee!) blend, but there's definitely a dark berry note in this that stinks on me. Boohoo!

The Lights of Men's Lives - This is lovely. It's so pretty. It's predominantly a vanilla beeswax scent when I first apply it, but as it warms up on my skin, the honey note comes to life, and thankfully, it's the honey that smells good on me. For a few minutes, I'm a bit worried that this is the vanilla that turns to plastic upon drydown, but thankfully, it's not. It's a soft, sweet, and creamy vanilla. There's definitely a hint of smokiness about the scent, but it doesn't smell like a bonfire, it just gives the scent a little complexity and depth. It's really pretty and the type of scent that you could wear and people might actually think you naturally smell that way. I'm putting a 5ml of this on my wishlist.

Milk Chocolate Buttercream - In the decant vial this is subtle and smells like creamy brownies. Delicious! But the moment it touches my skin, my damned skin chem completely annihilates anything good about it and turns into something that smells like brownie batter made with rancid buttermilk. Blech. Yet another chocolate scent that's just rotten on my skin.

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies & Egg Nog - this should be renamed to Cinnamon Sugar Dust Bunnies & Burnt Plastic Nog.

Eustephanos - Blah. Once again, pomegranate (which I really do love in theory) has ruined an otherwise perfectly good scent. The rosewood is very faint, but the resins are definitely what ground this blend, and I can smell the faintest hint of rose over them. But then there's that blasted pomegranate swirling through the resins and messing everything up. Pomegranate is one of those notes that so close to smelling good on me, but some tiny aspect of it is just all wrong on me, and so it's a huge bummer when a scent smells like it would be really amazing if it either had no pom or if my skin chemistry was altered just the tiniest bit. Overall, it's a fairly dark and heavy resinous fruity-floral and I want to love it...but sadly, I just can't.