Aiglet

Oddly enough, this smells unbelievably awful on me, and I like it anyway. It smells like generic cheap-o bathroom cleaner, that super-sweet stuff they use in truck stops and the like, but I put it on, and about five minutes later I'm smiling and cheerful and happy. It works the same way on my boyfriend, who doesn't like it either, so I'm keeping it.

I really wish I was getting some of what other people are getting from this, but sadly, I'm getting nothing but violets (which are basically nothing but soap on me) from beginning to end. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it from the bottle-smell, and it didn't really change at all in the ten minutes I could put up with it before I had to wash it off.

I've been looking for a leather/tobacco smell for a while, so I really wanted to like this... In the imp: Yummy! The leather is very strong here, but I can smell the tobacco back there and it's not quite as dark as I was thinking it would be. Wet: Yes! This is perfect! Lovely leather/tobacco smell -- like a smoking club. It's very masculine, but somehow also very comforting. I'm not sure I would wear it out of the house, but I do like it. Dry: The incense has come out to play. Sadly, incense doesn't work well on me -- it goes sort of sweet and headache-inducing, and then hangs around forever. Herr D. didn't work, this didn't work... I shall have to keep looking.

I almost didn't try this one, but since I know these things change on skin, I figured I would. In the bottle: Sweet and fruity, with something tangy underneath. Wet: GYARGH! Lots of fruit, very very sweet. Dry: Now I smell of fake grape. Off to the swaps pile to live with someone whose skin doesn't turn this into the scent of the grape-flavored Strawberry Shortcake doll.

In the imp: This smells sharp, almost acridly herbal. I was sort of leery of trying it, because it smells like one that will give me headaches, but I can always wash it off.. Wet: The "acrid" smell goes away, and it starts to smell almost sweet. It went through an oddly floral stage, too, but always with the dirt note keeping it interesting. Dry: The dirt actually goes away almost completely, leaving me with a light floral that's actually wearable. If your skin chemistry does what mine does to this, it might be a good choice for a more "traditional" perfume that isn't quite as boring as it could be. I suspect that people whose skin doesn't "eat" the dirt note will have a really different experience here -- I can tell the dirt is there, but it never comes out on me. Even Zombi doesn't have any dirt in it after about five minutes on my wrist. I don't particularly like florals or herbals, so off it goes anyway.

This isn't the kind of thing I would normally wear, but I've promised myself I'll try everything that comes my way, just in case the "perfect" BPAL is one of the ones I wouldn't have tried on my own. Sadly, this isn't it. In the bottle: It smells oddly sweet to me in the bottle. Wet: The first thing I got was a blast of "traditional cologne" smell, followed by about five minutes of lemon during the dry down. Dry: Under my watch (where the dry-down takes longer) it's oddly sweet-lemon scented. Sort of like really sweet lemonade with something herbal behind it. On the other wrist, the lemon has mostly died away, leaving a rather pleasant light herbal smell. It did go through a very strong "smells like guy" phase, but now it's gone gender-neutral, if you like the strong herbals. It's still got a hint of lemon to it, but nothing objectionable. I think what I'm getting most of is the lavender and the thyme. Nice, but not really a keeper for me, not being an herbal kind of girl.

In the imp: I could tell this was going to be too sweet for me, but sometimes surprising things happen, so I decided to try it anyway... Wet: Waaaaaugh, sugar! This goes *way* sweet on me when it's wet, I think it must be the violets. There's no wine or leather in this anywhere, just sweet, sweet, sweet, in a way that's not even particularly floral. Dry: It's still pretty sweet, but now it's obviously floral. It is the violets, I smell like those odd pastilles you find sometimes in the candy aisle. Sadly, none of the other notes ever came out on me at all. Into the swap pile.

This one just really isn't doing it for me. In the bottle, it smells sort of "men's cologne," but I know first impressions are misleading, and sometimes the very masculine scents do well on me. It hasn't changed at all from wet to dry-down -- it smells like I've put on my boyfriend's deodorant. It's not a bad smell, really, it's just overly masculine for me. I think on the right guy, this could be a knock-out. On me, at least, it's a very clean, "spicy" scent, with an undertone of something warm. There is something that's got a major overtone of "commercial cologne," though, and I'm not sure what that is. This might be a good choice for a "first BPAL" for a guy who's not sure they want to do the whole "perfume" thing. Into the swaps pile it goes.

I really wanted to love this, but it just doesn't work on me. When I first put it on, it was all pretty almonds and milk and honey, but the fig went really sour and kept amping and then dying back and then amping again. Apparently fig just doesn't work on me at all, so no more Eden for me.

Have you tried Desire yet? I've only tried Eat Me of the ones you list, but Snake Oil was *waaaaay* to strong for me (as in, I've diluted one imp down to *two* one ounce spray bottles with perfumer's base and it's *still* too strong), and Eat Me makes me smell like cake. Desire is what I *wanted* out of Snake Oil -- a sexy, sophisticated, non-foody vanilla that lasts and lasts and lasts, so you might want to give that a try. Good luck!

I really wanted to love this one, but it wasn't meant to be. In the bottle: Smells like spices and honey, this should be good. When I tried it on, I didn't let it get all the way dry, but it started out smelling sort of oatmeal-y (that's how my nose registers honey and cinnamon) and then went interestingly spicy. Sadly, that's when I noticed that I was getting a rash on the inside of my elbow where I'd put it on, and had to go wash it off. This is an absolutely lovely scent for people who like the spicy ones, but if you've got sensitive skin, I'd recommend trying it in a small dose before slathering.

This one changes not at all on me from bottle to dry-down: it smells of cake. Yellow cake with white frosting, I think, the kind you get at grade-school birthday parties. It was actually kind of funny -- I was so shocked at how much it smelled exactly like it that I went around the house saying "I smell like cake! Smell this!" I'm not actually sure that I *like* smelling of cake -- I'm not really a foody kind of person -- but it was fun to smell that much *exactly* like something else.

This is now my second-favorite scent (after Whip). In the bottle: Hrm, it's a bit sweet, but the sweet ones do okay on me, let's see how it goes. Wet: It's a bit astringent. I think that's the lemon coming out. Half-dry: The vanilla starts to come out, but it still smells a bit too sharp for me. Dry: Okay, this is wonderful. This is what I wanted Snake Oil to be -- a sexy, sophisticated vanilla that isn't taking any prisoners. I don't know why the roses didn't come out on me -- everything *else* I've tried that had roses went immediately straight to "I've been rolling around in rose petals all day, can't you tell?" (except for Ouija, which went to "glycerin-based rose-scented soap"), but they just don't show at all on me in Desire. I'm exceedingly pleased, and will probably order a bottle of this.

In the imp: Wow, that's incredibly foul. It's a very "sharp" scent, almost like cat pee. But people here like it a lot, let's see what it does on my skin -- I can always wash it off, right? Wet: Generic men's cologne. Not the nice upscale stuff, no, but the stuff that your high school boyfriend bought himself at the drug store, complete to the tinge of some guy-scented soap. Dry-down: Smells like... summer camp! Bug spray and big green trees. Somehow, it's very comforting to me, although it's a bit weird. Dry: Everything from before is gone, and now it just smells spicy and brown. (I can't pick out the notes, so I'm afraid this is as good a description as I can give.) It doesn't smell like cologne, but it definitely smells of "I'm wearing my boyfriend's shirt," although all of the sharp/nasty notes have gone away. I may have to put this one in some perfumer's base to see what that does -- in the other ones I've tried it seems to make it go straight to the "dry-down/dry" scent without any intervening stages, and to call out the secondary notes a bit better.

I wasn't sure about this one -- the first time I smelled it, I thought "ew, ew, sweet!" and put it back in my little storage box. Then I dug it out again... In the imp: Hrm, it's not as sweet as I thought, but it still smells like sugar cookies. First swipe: Oh, okay, that's not so bad... Smells of... vanilla? Oh, and there are some roses somewhere *way* over there. Dry down: It actually dries down like a very mild cousin of Snake Oil (which is good, because I think SO is too strong for everyday). I can *just barely* smell the roses, if I get *very* close to my wrist. This lasted about four hours on my right wrist but is still going strong at 14 hours on my left (because it's under my watch). Right now it smells *very* vanilla, although I'll admit to having a faintly stuffy nose, so I'm probably missing a lot of things. I do like it, though.