edenssixthday

CT IV: MCCXXXII - This is another of the strange ones. It's got a strong initial blast of vanilla and orchid that is quite lovely, but there's something weird and unpleasant behind it...something... well... meaty. The meat note is very subtle and barely there, but intereferes just enough with the pretty vanilla-floral that this becomes a quite odd scent. I also think there's some animalic musk in this, as it has an aspect of it that reminds me of Buck Moon, Ivanushka, and Faunalia.

CT V: CDXLVI (446) - This is from the Dorian series. The person who sent this to me said it smelled to her like... bell peppers (?), I think it was. Sure enough, whatever's in this has that crazy note that I associate not with bell peppers, but with canned green chili peppers. This is such a bizarre scent -- it's got a ton of that glorious creamy-sweet and smooth Dorian, but then it's topped off with this bizarre vegetable note. Now that I think of it, the combination of that weird canned green chili pepper note combined with Dorian makes the overall effect something like fresh cumin. Bizarre Chaos Theory, but that's part of the fun of it, I suppose.

CT III: DLXX (570) - This smells like white musk and vomit. There's maybe a bit of something resinous in there, too. Passing along...

 

CT III: CDLXXXIX (489) - Click HERE to read other reviews of this particular one. When I first sniffed it, my thought was that it reminded me of something I'd smelled before -- kind of foody and Christmassy... kind of gingery, but also piney -- there's definitely some pine pitch in there and something slightly medicinal, which could be the pine or could something else. It's another odd one. Glad I got to try it, but I'll be frimping this along.

 

 

The Montauk Project - This smells like medicinal, heavy, wet potting soil. It's incredibly damp, mossy, dirty, and green...heavy, heavy, heavy. It reminds me of hiking through the Pacific Northwest rainforest and the smell of the mud as I try to dig it out of the grooves in the sole of my shoes. I don't like this at all -- totally not my style.

 

Whoso List To Hunt - Overall, this is a very golden, warm, brown scent. The brown musk is the dominant note followed by the oak bar, which I adore. The amber and rose blend beautifully with the other notes. The rose and amber are both giving this scent a bit too much powderiness for my preference and the musk is almost sweet, in an animalic way. I can definitely see why people would like this, but it's just not quite right for my skin chemistry. On the right person -- male or female -- who doesn't amp the powderiness or musky-sweetness, I think this would smell really gorgeous.

 

 

Egg Moon - While decanting, I spilled an imp of this on my jeans, which I was too lazy to remove, and so I got to smell lots and lots of Egg Moon for hours on end while decanting the rest of the blends in my group, so I'm very familiar with it, and my final assessment is that it's awful. Whether it's on me or on my clothing, it's super-strong, super-sweet and spicy red-hots cinnamon, and the cassia is unpleasant, but made even more unpleasant by the way the frankincense blends with it (wah! I usually love frank!) and then, beneath it all, is this weird scent (the dammar gum perhaps?) that smells kind of heavy and almost-boozy-but-not-quite and really, just makes the whole thing heavy and cloying and horrible. I've tried all but one of the lunar oils, and this is by far my #1 least favorite.

Dark Chocolate, Whiskey, and Cognac Truffle - I love dark chocolate, I love whiskey, I love cognac, and I imagine I'd love them all together in a truffle, but sadly, on my skin, it just does not work. Chocolate blends are bad on me 95% of the time and whiskey rarely works on me, and together, the smell is really wonky with my skin chemistry. I wish it smelled more like what I imagine the real truffle would taste like in my mouth!

Serpents with Glittering Eyes and Forky Tongues - I LOVE this scent. This is an absolutely perfect summertime fragrance. It's heavy on the lemon, lime, and currant. The herbs bolster the citrus notes, keeping them from becoming too bright and airy. And the green musk -- I recognize that from 51 and a couple other blends I've enjoyed. I love it -- it's a really awesome, ethereal addition to the citrus notes. I've been wearing this a lot this spring and foresee myself wearing it even more this summer. Now that I think of it, I should have tossed a bottle into my last Lab order. Next time!

Monsieur Petitbled's Frivolous Wheeled Footwear - On me, this is an odd little scent. It starts off smelling like clove and orange, but almost immediately, the clove backs off, which is surprising in and of itself, and what I smell is orange blossom and fig. The clove and pepper are definitely there giving a spicy edge to things, but they're subtle and not in-your-face as both usually are on me. I can't smell the patch or the red currant for the life of me. If I had to classify this, I'd call it a spicy fruity-floral.

Octopus and Abalone Diver - This one opens up on me with the scent of freesia, water lily, and salty sea spray....and it's really strong and perfumey. As it dries down, the florals mellow out and what I smell then is mostly the scent of salty sea and wood, and oddly enough, that molluscan seashell accord. I had no idea I knew what a seashell smelled like until I recognized the odor in this perfume oil blend. How odd. After a little longer on my skin, the warm, deliciousness of the ambergris starts to take over the other notes until all I'm left with is ambergris and salty sea spray. I like it, but it's not something I'd find myself reach for over my other favorite aquatics and ambergris blends.

Plastic Pink Flamingo - Well, considering that marshmallow does indeed turn to "plastic" on my skin, this is a fitting scent -- it smells like marshmallow plastic and lots and lots of sugar. Dandelion is usually an awful note on me, and while I can smell it in this blend, the plastickiness of the marshmallow keeps it from coming out in full force. In the decant vial, it's marshmallowy sweet and delicious, but I have a feeling that if I wore it in a scent locket to keep it from going plasticky on me, it would become cloying after a while because it's just so uber-sweet.

Doll's Eye Infused Honey - Bitter herbal honey with a hint of mint. Another reviewer mentiond marigolds, which is dead-on -- that's exactly what the bitter part of it smells like...stinky marigolds. It's a very unique scent, but that marigold-like scent combined with the mint make it unwearable for me.

Story Time at Dark Delicacies - In the bottle, it smells like paper and wood, which isn't my type of thing, so I took forever to get around to actually testing it. I was really surprised when on my skin, I immediately smelled a delicious foody scent (butter cookies! yum!) and lots and lots of lemon rind and herbs....although the herbs remind me of those used in Eshe, which is actually kind of a strange juxtaposition of scent-memories. Anyway, as it dries down, the butter cookie scent goes away, and I never do smell the leather in it. The lemon note gets pulled into the overall herbal scent, and this becomes a very strongly sweet herbal scent with a woody base. It's a truly awesome scent, but I can't decide if it's something I want to wear as a personal fragrance or not. I think it might be a really good scent to wear if I'm going to be outdoors in the early morning shopping at the farmer's market. I only tested it so far at home. I'll have to give it a "real life" run to see how I like smelling it around me as I'm going through the course of the day.

I Fell in Love with a Floating Brain v1 - Mmmm.... it's like Orange Crush. Or maybe more like a carbonated creamsicle. I think maybe there's a hint of pink grapefruit in it, too? It's awesome. I wish it lasted longer, but it's still awesome.

Det. Patrick Gleason - This opens up as a limey cologne scent -- very fresh and crisp. As it begins to dry down on my skin, the leather really begins to come out, even though it's a soft leather scent, and there's the faintest hint of gunpowder. It's not remotely the type of scent I'd choose for myself, but it's really nice, definitely masculine, and would smell great on a guy.

Witchblade - I love me some dark, red musks and frankincense, and this scent is almost perfect...but not quite (on me, that is). It's definitely a dark, heavy, super-sexy red musk blended with tons of heavy metal \m/ The frankincense is pretty faint, but definitely lends a dark grittiness to the overall scent. I can't identify the amber in it at all. I think what's not-quite-right about this for me is not that anything's wrong with it, but for me, I would like something a little sweeter in it to make it perfect for the type of scent I would like to wear. Without that hint of sweetness I'd like, it's too masculine for my taste. I wonder what it would smell like on my husband? It is a really great red musk scent, but it's not one I'll wear myself.

 

 

<b>Pyschological Horror</b> - Let me just get this right out of the way: I HATE THIS. Okay, now that's over with, I'll tell you why. In the bottle, I smell one of my worst death notes ever -- caramel. Lots and lots of caramel and something powdery and musky. When applied to my skin, the caramel is still quite strong and the musk becomes obvious as the animalic musk from Buck Moon and Ivanushka. The musk is awesome, but that damned caramel note is just killing me. There's probably only a single drop of caramel in the whole bottle, but I'm highly sensitive to it, and my skin amps it like crazy. It's just awful. As the blend dries down on my skin, the caramel thankfully fades a bit. The big poof of powderiness also settles, revealing iris and/or orris root beneath it. I can actually see now why people would like this scent, as the powderiness of the iris/orris and the velvety musk work really beautifully together....but there's still that damned caramel that I have to deal with, and I just can't get past it. It smells absolutely raunchy on me. And so, this has to go in the same category as every single other blend out there with caramel in it (with only one exception), my "BPAL Stinkbug" category. <img src="http://www.bpal.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/fear.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="fear.gif" /> Good thing so many others seem to love it. They can have it!

 

 

ETA: So, after reading this review, parrot_suspect PM'd me and told me there's a non-caramel version of Psychological Horror out there, and then she was sweet enough to send me an empty bottle with residual oil in it for testing. Sure enough, she was dead-on accurate: there is not the remotest drop of identifiable caramel in this particular batch variation. It's so dramatically different as to be kind of bizarre, because I HATE the caramel version, and the non-caramel version is true, musky love. It smells like all the good things I mentioned above, and none of that nasty, evil, dastardly caramel.

Thisbe - I have been waiting for years for the Lab to put out a blend that uses mulberry, as it's one of my favorite scents. Pomona was the first and I couldn't smell the Mulberry in it, and this is the second, so I was definitely looking forward to receiving this bottle. When I first open it, all I smell is mulberry with a hint of sandalwood, and it's deliciously gorgeous. When I apply it to my skin, the mulberry instantly fades, and blends in with a cacophony of scent from all the other notes. It actually doesn't smell that great on me in its wet stage. As it dries down, the sandalwood, rose, and iris are the dominant notes and they blend beautifully together. There is still a very, very, very faint trace of mulberry, but not much. It's a really lovely scent. It's feminine, subtle, gentle, and note remotely intrusive. It's the type of fragrance I would feel comfortable wearing in an enclosed space like an airplane or an elevator, knowing it would likely not irritate those around me. Quite lovely, even if I do want more mulberry in it.

There are not enough words in the English language to describe how gorgeous this atmo spray is. It's mostly vanilla orchid with a spritz of sweet, bubbly, pink champagne. There's a hint of heady magnolia swirling through the scent, but it's mostly that champagny vanilla orchid. It's lightly tropical, very fresh, and just soooo pretty. I have sprayed every linen in my bathroom and on my bed with it. I just can't get enough.

Gaudium - This bath oil is AWESOME! At first whiff, I smelled geranium -- lots and lots and lots of my favorite note ever, geranium. Once I put it in the tub with me it was still mostly geranium, but also bright and sweet and citrusy. It wasn't until I got out of the tub and the scent settled on my skin that the orange and grapefruit and lemon verbena really became present. In fact, at this point, it was mostly a pink grapefruit scent that is bolstered by orange, verbena and the amazing geranium. I can barely smell the lavender (which is good for me, since it's a note I don't care for in general). Overall, this is a strongly herbal-citrus scent that is very balancing and uplifting. I really love it and wish I'd gotten more than a 1oz decant!

Panther Moon - HOT DAYUM THIS IS GOOD!!! I can't ever wear dark or black musk, but holy smokes, it's AWESOME on me in this scent. On me, it's mostly black musk, lots and lots of yummy warm soothing ambergris, a little bite of ginger, and then a mix of everything else. It's musky and smoky and sexy and sooo amazing. Another reviewer mentioned Snake Charmer. It does kind of feel like someone got their Snake Charmer in my ambergris-laden black musk. Rowrrrr!!! SEXY!!!

The Wrestler Onogawa Kisaburo Blowing Smoke at a One-Eyed Monster - This is a strange scent on me. It actually reminds me a lot of Voodoo Queen, yet more woody and peppery. The scent starts out with the sharpness of black pepper, and it's very strong and biting. However, the sharpness of the pepper quickly fades and the overall scent becomes woody, smoky, and resinous. The honey is faintly identifiable and adds a subtle hint of sweetness to the blend that is highly complimentary to the various woods. It's a very unique scent -- very woody, darkly masculine, and debonair.

Echo - This scent turned out really different on me than I would have expected. On me, it's mostly a resinous amber scent with a nice backdrop of white sandalwood and a sweet ribbon of vanilla running through it. I don't smell the orchid or the tuberose, which is a disappointment because I love tuberose. This is a pretty scent and with that amber/vanilla thing going on, actually reminds me a lot of Boadicea bath oil and also has similarities to Inez in the CD line of perfume oils. It's pretty, but since I already have a gorgeous sandalwood-vanilla scent that I love, I've passed this one along already.

 

Yellow Jessamine Honey - This opens up with a balanced blast of jasmine and sweet honey. The jasmine simmers down pretty quickly, and turns into the most gorgeous floral whose heavy headiness is tempered by the sweetness of the honey, which is so smooth it's almost nectar-like. There's something slightly green and earthy far in the background, too. After it's been on my skin a while, I smell a soapiness when I sniff my skin up close, but the scent that wafts around me is light, fresh jasmine and sweet honey-like nectar. It is a beautiful, beautiful sweet floral.

Yorick - I don't like to wear dirt scents, but for a dirt scent, this one ain't too bad. It's definitely smells like dirt and mushrooms, but there's this weirdly awesome spicy sweetness that I can only imagine is cinnamon. It's so bizarre, yet it completely works. The floral is subtle, but also lends a hint of sweetness to the overall blend. I think it's the cinnamon + dirt that really makes this one really stand out to me. I don't tend to wear dirt scents, but I think this might be one I find myself drawn to on occasion because it's just really unique and pretty and it's a dirt scent that doesn't make me think of worms!