moderngypsy

I was a little worried about this one, since I've kinda overdosed on the way-too-sweet scents for so long that my nose is starting to get a little jaded with what it likes and what it doesn't. But being the addict that I am, I ordered a bottle anyway. So, so, so glad I did. It's sweet, very berry-y and candylike, without going off the deep end into headachey, tooth-rottingly sweet. It's incredibly well-balanced, and the background "pillowcase" is enough to keep it from getting cloying. The throw on my skin is incredible -- I kept catching whiffs of it for a good few hours whenever I'd gesticulate (which I do *a lot*.), and it lasted at the skin level even longer. Definitely picking up a second bottle of this before it goes away, and possibly a third, just in case. Can't be too careful with the backups.

A frimp of this one arrived in my box today, and when I was going through all of them, this one was one of the standouts. Generally speaking, I'm about as fond of florals as I am of ingrown toenails. But this one smells almost berry-y in the bottle, and *continues* to smell berry-y on my skin. The florals peek out their heads now and again, but until it's fully skin-warmed, I can barely smell flowers at all, really. Or not the flowers I'm used to. However, when it dries, it disappears on me. Which is sad, because it's the first floral I actually wanted. Stupid body chemistry. Hrmf.

My skin tends to do strange things with any kind of creamy-type scents. Either it amps them all to texas or it sours them and makes me smell like sour milk. So I was dubious, and ordered an imp first. That imp? Dry. Completely DRY. That says something, since it takes me forever to go through an imp, usually. Bottle arrived today, and yep, it's rootbeery, sassafrassy, creamy yumminess, with no amping of the butter and nothing different from the imp. And I love it so so so much. Lasts forever on my skin, doesn't do any of the weird breaking down, just smells fabulous from start to finish. This one is on my top ten now, probably for good.

I knew, going in, that most of the snakes need to age. So when it arrived today, I thought I'd have a little sniff and put it away until it smells like the decant in a few months. Hooboy. Not only does it smell JUST like the imp ALREADY, but it might actually smell a little *better*. A little more leathery and old-western-dusty. I can wait to see how it ages...

Oh, SQUEE. Arrived today in record time and I pounced on it for testing. in the bottle: smells like bubblegum mixed with something weird. Go figure, since its lab desc is essentially bubblegum with somethingS weird. first five minutes: All bubblegum, all the time. Has a similar scent to Jailbait. (Which reminds me... I need a bottle of that. Used up my imp long ago.) Like metallic preteen angst and hormone smoke. as it dries: Bubblegum loses the fight to SomethingS weird. Not in a bad way at all. There's definitely something sassafrassy, and honestly, it smells like a manlier version of Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener to me. Less sweet, but still 'frassy. If my husband wears this, and I wear the SSS, we're going to smell like a bottle of sassparilla exploded in our house. And that's okay with me, because I LOVE IT. I love it so so so much. I'm thinking I need a back-up bottle before September's disappearance, for sure.

It's been so long that I can't remember when I got the imp for this one. All I know is that my now-husband bought me a 10ml for my 2005 holiday gift, and the mix of almonds and something kind of dark and indefinable pretty much hooked me on BPAL for *life*. It's sweet at first, but dried down to something kind of sweet and green and sleepy-eyed, and I really loved it. Earlier this year, I quit smoking, though. And it stopped being perfect. Stupid body chemistry wonkiness. I still get almonds and fabulous at first, but within an hour, I've got slightly-nutty talcum powder. And not just powder, but powder that *burns*. No, really. My wrist turned red and itched. So did my neck. I'm not ashamed to admit I cried a little. I keep the bottle here so I can open it up and sniff it from time to time, and I think if I ever get a locket that will separate it from my skin, it might go back to just this side of Perfect. *sniffle*

I'm thinking that Habu must be one of those bottles that either a) varies between batches or changes significantly with age. The reason for this is that I have a decant of this from an old batch, and I *love* it. Perfect mix of sweet and spicy and woodsy, all in one. Deepens on the dry-down and lasts forever -- I can seriously smell it the next morning. Then I ordered a bottle, because I was starting to fall into that perish-if-it-is-not-mine category. The bottle? Lemon. Lemon and *something*. But Lemon. No spice, no deepness, no woods...just, *lemon*. I'm hoping, after reading this thread, that a three-month aging will take this back to the imp's richness, because it's possibly my favorite of all time. ETA: So here we are, two months later, and after letting it sit and doing the famous roll-to-mix a few times...I'm almost back to the way it smelled in the (much older) imp. I'm probably going to let it rest and age for a little while longer, just to give it a little more time to develop, but I'm definitely pleased with where it's going. Now if I can just talk myself out of ordering the whole Snake Pit, life will be good and largely ramen-for-dinner-free.