edenssixthday

The Rat Speakers - Gah! Oh me, this is pretty bad. It's incredibly earthy, and it seems the fig leaf, sandalwood, and sage are the strongest notes, but those are generally notes I would expect to enjoy, but in this blend, I really don't. It smells exactly the way my hands smell after I've been touching my mom's horses. I don't like it at all, and I'm glad I decided to try it right before hopping into the tub.

Traipsing Through the Crop Circles - When I first apply, all I smell is a sharp, strong, wet dirt note and the scent of dry hay. As it warms up on my skin, the dirt note recedes, and I can smell a lot more of the fresh green, corn-husk type notes. It's not something I'd wear for perfume, but it's spot-on and really interesting. About 45-60 minutes after I apply, it smells awesome: it smells like sweet corn and myrrh, but there's virtually no throw. Still, up close, my skin smells fabulous.

Door - Oh, I love this! I thought Crib Girls was the prettiest honey scent I could ever find, but I was wrong. Door is absolutely perfect for me! It makes me soooo happy that my skin chemistry has changed and that there are now some honeys I can wear. This is mostly sweet honey and soothing chamomile on me, with a hint of cistus. It leaves the most delightful, subtle swirl of honey-scented air around me and it lasts for hours on my skin. I'm definitely a fan.

The Marquis de Carabas - Oh God. I am speechless. Read the other reviews, and they'll tell you how spectacularly awesome this is. Spicy rum and sweet, hazy opium, the perfectly-balanced amount of leather, and something kind of sweet that almost reminds me of root beer, but in a really good way. This is delicious. Okay, so I lied, I'm not completely "speechless," but what I don't have are the right words to describe how awesome this scent is. I highly recommend it. To everyone.

Bette Noir - I was about 90% sure I was going to love this, but the bergamot and orange blossom kept me from being entirely certain since they can go wonky on me sometimes. Fortunately, this is a big fat WINNER. It's dark and juicy from the plum and berries and the yummilicious myrrh (which blends so gorgeously well with the plum and berries!). It's sweetened up not just by the benzoin and has a smoky, hazy quality from the resins in it. This is a stunning scent. It's as gorgeous as I hoped it would be and is really wonderful.

Lamia - In the bottle, I smell the vanilla amber, oude, myrrh, and vetiver. It smells "okay," but nothing amazing. On my skin, it completely changes, and turns into something really elegant, beautiful, and downright gorgeous. On my skin, the orchid is the dominant note, with the tiniest hint of coconut behind it, and a thin layer of champaca and peach. The black currant thankfully doesn't show up at all (since it usually turns everything around it to cat pee on my skin). It's such a beautiful fragrance, very subtle, and will need to be slathered and reapplied, but it's worth it.

Lupanar - This is uber-sweet, sticky honey that's had an additional layer of intensity added to it by the sweet almond. It's almost too sweet. It's definitely sexy and sticky. I don't smell the myrrh or ylang ylang at all. It's all honey and almond. I think it's actually too sweet for my taste. I wish there were more myrrh to temper the sweetness.

Parlor House - I think this is my favorite atmo spray to date. It's plummy, grapey-boozy, musky, dark, and smoky. Oh, and there's a hint -- just the faintest trace -- of patchouli leaf. I don't use the atmo sprays enough to justify trying to track down and acquire a bottle of this, but if it were ever released, I'd definitely buy a bottle. I think it's AWESOME.

When wet, this smells awesome -- like a dapper men's cologne full of bergamot and sweet basil and other herbs. And then, as soon as it touches my skin, it becomes the god-awful scent of minty vomit....with a splash of bergamot on top. It's so gross I can't even put into words. It's got to be the cumin. I just know it. I love the taste of it, but when I'm cooking with cumin, my house smells like a combination of B.O. and puke, so I'm going to finger the cumin as the culprit in this blend. Without the GDPOS cumin, I have a feeling I'd like this blend a lot.

Erik - This type of dirty, dark, dank, manly-man scent tends to scare me. A lot. But you never know with BPAL, so I tried it anyway. When I first apply it, I think it's one of those surprise scents that smells nothing like you think it would, and for a second, I think it smells awesome -- warm woods and leather...mmm. But really, that only lasted for a split second, because that's when the "musty" scent comes marching in. It's the same green mildew note from Shadwell. The only difference is it's mildew coated in dry dust. It's so gross. I also can now smell the kerosene oil underneath all of it, which adds a non-gross, interesting, and odd level of complexity to the scent. After a while, the mildewiness (is that a word?) actually dissipates, leaving behind an aspect of it that reminds me less of mildew and more of lush, tropical greenery. This is one very strange, very odd scent. I don't like it and would never wear it again...but I can't stop smelling it on my skin because it's so damn intriguing.

Phosporous v5 - This is a lovely, ethereal scent. It's very gentle and subtle, soft and unisex. It does indeed remind me a lot of Embalming Fluid, but not as strong. I definitely smell the slightest bit of ozone, green tea, aloe, and when I first apply it, a bit of metal, but that fades almost instantly. There's also a hint of white mint in the blend, and the tiniest bit of lemon. It's subtly sweet and very light, fresh, and summery. I don't get the men's cologne impression from it at all, but I kind of see how it could go that way on some people's skin. This is, to me, so similar to Embalming Fluid, it's just the softer, shyer younger sister version of it.

Kinnabari v4 - This opens up with a really strong, overpowering, and totally delicious caraway scent. It's all caraway all the time! As it starts to dry down, the caraway settles down (but not much!) and I notice something behind it that reminds me of the scent of wet clay. It is absolutely not something I would ever wear if I wanted to smell pretty. To me, it's more of a novelty scent. And now, I'm craving caraway rye bread.

I am so very, very grateful to Little Bird, who loves this scent to the Nth degree and still shared it with me for no reason other than she's wonderful.

 

Cagliostro - The first note I notice is dark and musky, followed immediately by the same vanilla used in Snake Oil. As it warms up on my skin, I smell dark, thick, heavy resinous notes along the lines of dark myrrh, possibly amber and/or frankincense and/or opium (?). There's also a non-juicy, un-sweet fruit note cutting a path through the resins, probably plum, maybe a dark berry of some sort. Overall, it's a deep and rich scent that's smoky, resinous, highly gothic, and very beautiful. Seeing as how I can't get any more, I am inspired to layer my Romanti.Goth with aged Snake Oil and see if I can't get a similar result on my skin.

 

 

The Macabray - This is one of my favorite winter blends. It's the smell of cold, slushy snow and crisp winter air and tiny winter flowers and maybe even a handful of winter berries that got squashed under someone's foot. It's a really beautiful scent and when I woke up to May snow in my yard today, I knew exactly what I was going to be wearing this morning.

Arsenic v2 - This is a beautiful tropical-floral blend. I catch definite wafts of plumeria and a subtle yet lush greenery. I don't at all smell the gardenia noted by other reviewers. There may be a bit of tiare or pikaki in here. No matter what's in it, it comes off as a soft, subtle, floral that is very pretty and very tropical.

Mr. Edward Hyde - I hate it. I had to wash it off immediately. It opened up with the scent of tobacco and musk and a really strong smell of sweat and blood. At first, I thought it might work out nicely, but then it just became gamey and gross and began to smell like an unkempt dog kennel, kibble and all. On me, it just doesn't work at all. Blech.

Hel v6 - This is definitely an apple scent, but instead of being bright and crisp, it's dark and heavy, almost like an apple that's starting to turn. There's definitely an understone of something dark, but I don't believe it's myrrh or vetiver, since my skin usually loves both of them. Rather, I think it's maybe peppercorn. There's also a hint of a white floral, but I don't believe it could be apple blossom, since that always turns to pure dishsoap on my skin. This isn't really my type of scent because I'm not a fan of apple scents in general, but I imagine people who like apple and who like dark and dirty type scents could potentially enjoy this one.

Android v2 - I fully anticipated a sharp, biting, metallic scent. Instead, I smell soft, sweet metals along with tangy citrus (lime?) and most surprisingly and deliciously, juniper. This isn't the kind of scent I would normally be drawn to myself, but I do like it and think it would be an awesome guy's summertime scent -- fresh, crisp, clean, and summery. It's awesome!

Giant Vulva - This is a musky honey scent that is slightly cologney and definitely has an added jolt of sweetness from the sugar cane. It's got the faintest hint of creamy sweetness, which must be the vanilla flower? It's very, very pretty, but would be perfect without the cologneyness of the copal and with a little more of the beeswax, which I can't really smell at all. It's very clean and fresh and pretty.

Spare Change - This is a metallic cologne scent with a hint of powdery violet. It's totally the smell of the inside of Aunt Norma's purse. This should come with a loose, lint-covered lemon drop stuck to a crumbled, lipstick-dabbed tissue.

Tcotchkie - This is the smell of Christmas dessert in a mountain cabin. It's full of woods - sandalwood and pine perhaps, and sweet buttery goodness (maybe chestnuts?), along with spicy mulled wine, and then an oddly out-of-place scent of eucalyptus or menthol of some sort. Without that weird menthol note, I'd love this. But with it, it just doesn't smell quite right to me.

Diabolical Offspring - There's pretty much nothing diabolical about this scent -- it's a super-sweet baby powder scent, with a hint of smokiness underneath. When I first apply it, it's uber-sweet baby powder (with a possible hint of rose?), and it's only as it dries down that I smell the faintest trace of smoke. The notes work surprisingly well together. It has a moderate level of throw and lasts a really long time on my skin.

Thriambus Atmo Spray - I did not get to smell this in the air, I only got to smell the oil in the tester bottle at the Bat's Day booth, but it's gorgeous. I swooned. I swoon when thinking of it. It's the perfect type of scent to swoon to. It's heavy on the red wine scent, but it's not the scent of cheap red wine, but of high-quality red wine, mixed with cloves and tobacco plus an add smattering of other scents (must be the random absinthe, latex, final, and fog?) that don't really fit the scent, but rather than detract from the overall feel of the scent, actually add to its depth and complexity in a really interesting way. It's a really awesome scent and I'm so glad to know Puddin's making more available for those of us who missed out on it on Saturday. It's a very gothy club-scent and will smell gorgeous in my home and on my linens.

 

 

ETA: Puddin' WINS BIG TIME for allowing those of us who missed out on Thriambus at Bat's Day to order some from him. I got mine a couple days ago and haven't stopped using it. I've been spraying it on my linen shower curtain and bath towels and every time I walk into my bathroom, I have a split-second moment of WHOA! WHAT IS THAT AMAZING SMELL?!?! and then I remember it's Thriambus, and I'm so glad I have some. See alicia_stardust's review below: I couldn't put it any better than that. Her experience with it is exactly the same as my own. In the bottle, it smelled mostly like wine to me, but after spraying it on my linens in my bathroom, my bathroom smells like sexy clove cigarettes and wine. It's so uber-gothy and reminds me a million times over of all the best parts of my old club days.

Rivet.Goth - This was, for me, the surprise hit of the bunch. When I read the scent description, "machine oil" scared me away. I planned to stay far, far away, until I was standing at the Black Market booth and fairnymph stuck her arm under my nose, and I was instantly mesmerized. I had to have it! I had to wear it! NOW! That evening, I wore Rivet.Goth and kept sniffing my arm. My husband commented that I groaned in delight every time I sniffed. I didn't have any idea I was doing that. It was kind of embarrassing. But still, that's how gorgeous this scent is. It's totally the scent of Dead Man's Hand leather, well-worn, soft, oiled, and loved. The tobacco gives the scent the slightest bit of smooth huskiness. The machine oil doesn't smell like the floor of a mechanic's shop or the sweaty shirt of a mechanic. It's more like the scent of fresh oil applied to metal workings to make them run smoothly. I really can't add anything the other reviewers didn't already say. Simply put: it's AWESOME. It's sexy, it's gorgeous, and I think I may have finally found the scent that has convinced my husband that he should wear BPAL, too. He likes it way more than any of the other "dude" scents I stuck in front of him at the BPAL booth the other day. Of course, that doesn't mean he gets my bottle. I'll be wearing it myself, too.

Romanti.Goth - This is probably my second-favorite of the Bat's Day exclusives this year. It's dark and resinous, heavy on the opium and incense, and the plum give it just enough juicy sweetness to make it totally interesting. It's extremely dark and heavy, and evokes images of cast-iron candelabras with blood-red candles dripping mounds of molten wax down their sides casting shadows against the heavy, drawn velvet shades, while the angsty cries of Peter Murphy mingle with the clove-laden cigarette smoke swirling through the air. Oh, this is definitely a Romanti-goth's dream scent! It's rich, heavy, dark, smoky, sinister, sexy, gorgeous, and sweetly seductive. It's the "gothiest" of all the Bat's Day goth scents.

 

 

See the cute little South Park Goth Kid on the right? He would TOTALLY wear this: