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I was really looking forward to trying this, with some trepidation, not being sure if it would smell good on me. Good news, it does!

 

Right away I recognize the chrysanthemum from Mum Moon....a note that I really love. Other than that I just can't pick this scent apart. This scent reminds me of a sound. It reminds me of the clear, deep tone of a bell. I'm not sure why, but it does! Also, I know this sounds lame, but this reminds me of a really high quality candle....the kind you smell in the store, and really want to buy, but it's too expensive. It's very floral, but I can tell there's more going on than just flowers. I think I did smell the sage a little bit.

 

After a while, something threatens to turn soapy but it doesn't get out of control. Overall.....this just works! Really nice scent.

 

Edit: dangit, that lily does come out soapy on me after all. It's not horrible. Could be one of the scents with lily that I can actually wear.

I tried this today and like it right away. Did not need to age it, it didn't have to 'grow on me'. I just really liked it, right from the start! This totally reminds me of Laudanum, except without the sassafrass (which makes sense if you compare the notes). Event Horizon seems a bit more complex, and somewhat elegant due to the orchid. I've never had a bad experience w/opium or poppy notes. I don't get 'bitter' from opium at all, although I know some people describe it that way. To me it's a smokey, sultry, incense-y note. This strikes me as a night-time scent, for going out or for a more formal occasion. I don't think you'd want to wear this to the office.

 

I may not need a whole bottle since I already have a bottle of Laudanum.....but I'm going to think about it.

Excuse me but I just wet my panties.

 

Well now, how can I follow that?? Pressure.....

 

I did not wet my panties however I do like this scent a lot! To me the notes don't seem to blend together. Instead they sort of swirl around me seperately. For a while the cocoa dominates, then later the coffee comes out stronger. The coffee here reminds me of Pinched W/Four Aces (I never did try Misk U). And the chocolate/cocoa works out better for me than some other cocoa scents I've tried. It's not a favorite note for me, but in this case it's actually working out nicely.

 

Basically......it is what it is. If it sounds like something you'll like, you probably will! And if you think you'll love it, don't hold back.

Hmm, this smells floral to me.....I know, totally lame description. It reminds me of some other oils I've tried.....maybe Asphodel, possibly Sunflower?? Except this smells 'purple' to me. Also I am picking up a touch of musk underneath the floral notes. Overall, not a bad scent, but not something I would wear often.

Complete revision of my first review.....

 

I like to wear November to work, because it has a nearly 'traditional' quality that fits in my work environment. But to me there is complexity, too. It brings to mind a brook or stream that isn't frozen, but there is snow all around. It's snowy and kind of aquatic, but also there are leaves and pine trees. There is something here that I can only describe as 'salty', perhaps there is a beach nearby. And there is also a sweetness underneath the dry leaves, kind of like the sweet grass in Stranger In Camp. It plays against the cold and dry notes. In fact, this is almost like the winter companion to Stranger In Camp, but with the dry leaves of October, and a good deal of watery, slushy snow.

 

October makes me think of shades of brown, gold, and dark green. November is more like bold strokes of white, grey, and black, and maybe the darkest green.

I still have found no better way than using the little thing inside the cap. I've tried coffee-stirrers, but I always end up with too much oil. And upending the bottle on my skin gives me too much also. I do it every once in a while if I'm testing something and I really want to get the full experience. But really, two or three dabs from the cap are just the right amount. With imps, I swipe once, re-dip, and swipe again.

My decant is the new, 2007 Snow White.

 

The instant I breathed this in, I thought 'Play-Doh!'. On my skin it's exactly like a greenish-white, pale, minty Play-Doh! But see......I'm one of those freaks that likes the smell of Play-Doh (I even have the Demeter Play-Doh scent, which isn't very good but that's a whole other topic......), so this isn't a bad thing.

 

As it dries/warms up/starts to fade, I can smell other things. Soft, sweet, coconutty, cold.....somewhat fresh and a hint of floral......and the minty vanilla aspect reminds me a bit of Tokyo Stomp. This is a really pretty scent, I like it! However, as a guy, I really can't imagine wearing this anywhere out-and-about. It's somewhat girly. But for a comfort scent, I'll definitely keep my decant, because hey....it's Snow White!

 

Oh and I agree that it's really long lasting, although the throw is medium I would say. Stays close to my skin but lasts and lasts. I wonder how it would be in an oil burner? *ponders*

 

Edit: I wonder if there's a bit of a learning curve for Snow White. Well, for me there was! Not only does this no longer remind me of Play-Doh.....I like it more every time I wear it. And now, I feel like I'll be buying a bottle before they go bye-bye. This scent makes me think of milky white sap trickling from fresh cut flower stems, with a beautiful minty chill mixed in. It's really cold outside today, and I wore this, and just loved it. It goes perfectly with the chill in the air, but I imagine it's nice in hot weather too. Sorry for the long, rambling review but I just had to update this.

The driest BPAL scents that I remember are Penitence, Oblivion, Cathedral and Wolfsbane.

 

Oblivion becomes way too sweet on me. A sort of heavy and medicinal sweetness.

 

Scents with Black/Dark Musk often go sweet on my skin too.

 

Blends that did not do it:

 

Lightning - very fresh, it's mostly citrus with a sharp ozone note to me and not sweet at all.

Arcana - lemon verbena and incense.

Highwayman - if you can get away with rose and jasmine.

Catherine - rosmary and rose

Bess - more rose, but lemony, not sweet

Sloth - Myrrh

Tum - smells like fruit tea to me

 

Whow... The rest of the ~60 Blends I tried are sweet in one or the other way.

 

Oblivion turns sweet on me too. It ends up smelling almost like Midway. There's something in there that smells like cotton candy to me!

 

Sloth has a heavy, powdery sweetness on my skin. Myrrh does that for me sometimes, like in Penitence and Omen.

 

It could be that what I'm calling "sweet" doesn't seem sweet to other people. Like we're smelling the same thing but describing it differently. A lot of people seem to think myrrh is bitter and I don't get that at all.

Grassy pumpkin. The pumpkin starts out kind of buttery, then the plant life comes through. Works pretty well on my skin, and I like it enough to wear the decant that I have! Probably not my favorite of the Pumpkin Patch (that's probably V), but this is not bad at all.

This is quite light on my skin. When I sniff up close, I can smell the most exquisite lit-incense scent ever. The throw of the scent is too light, though. It comes across as light powder, kind of fading into nothingness. It has a 'papery' feel that reminds me a lot of Lurid Library.

 

That up-close scent is soooo promising, though.....I don't think I'm giving up on this one that easily. It really is like the ultimate incense scent when I sniff from about an inch or two away, really quite beautiful. Maybe some aging will help?

 

(so yeah....basically I echo Hayet's review above me.... )

I wore this today and it kind of went into a scent blind spot or something. I could only smelled it if I sniffed right up close to my skin, and even then, I could hardly smell anything. What I did smell was slightly woody, slightly fruity, a little musk......not high-pitched at all, very mellow.

 

It's a nice enough scent, but I can't decide if I should try it again in a few days/weeks, or just let it go. I mean really......with all the imps that I have, I might have to start being a little more ruthless in my testing.

 

This scent reminded me a little bit of Kuang Shi, which makes sense since they share some notes. So I guess I'm picking up on the mandarin, even though it doesn't really smell of citrus to me.

Sugar Skull 2007

 

I got to try this thanks to the lovely evilmistressoftoast. Thanks so much!

 

I wouldn't have thought of it myself, but those who say this is more of a 'white sugar' scent got it right. I've also worn the 2005 version and that seems a little more like 'brown sugar'. They are very similar, the new one has the same complexities and layers, and the spirit of the scent is the same. It's just kind of....updated, maybe?

 

The difference, to me, is that the newer one seems a little more feminine. And from memory, the 2005 version has a hint of spiciness that the newer one doesn't have.

I feel lucky......Jolasveinar is perfectly balanced on my skin......just the right hints of floral and sweet/spicy pastry, behind the slushy/snowy fir.

I use mild dish detergent from the health food store, with a very light grapefruit scent. Then I use these:

 

 

.....let that dry and if I'm testing something else, I'll rinse again because witch hazel does leave a little smell behind. Usually after those three steps I'm good to go. The pads are very convenient, if a little expensive (around $7).

If you run across a decant of Kingsport, it's worth a try even though it has an ozone element. Salty sea air with a sweetness that's almost fruity, very nice scent.

 

Lysander has a slight salty element....I think someone besides me mentioned that in their review, so I don't think it's my imagination. : ) And that's GC, so it would be easier to find.

I've worn this a few times, and it smells really good. The throw is light, especially for a scent with red musk and leather. As lots of other people have said, this is blended so well I couldn't pick out individual notes right away. I smell the plant-like notes, sort of green. Then later on the red musk swells and comes forward.

 

I think that this will get better and better as it ages. I think in a few weeks or months, this will be incredible. Right now it has a strange (but not bad) quality.....it reminds me of when you taste soup right after you make it, before the flavors have had a chance to mingle together, and it tastes 'new'. This has that same quality to me. I know that's totally weird but that's what it reminds me of.

The Chilling Cellar has this odd quality, when I try to sniff it up close, I can't find it. But it does fill the air around me with its presence. It's mostly sweet, slightly fruity, but also tangy and slightly powdery. The powdery note reminds me of something in Black Phoenix.

 

This doesn't smell bad on me. I think it's just a little too sweet, a little powdery, and I don't think I would wear it very often. It would work really well on the right person, though.

Not much to add here.....this is a dry and slightly dusty scent. For me it's more papery than anything else, although the musk and incense do give it some weight, I think. There is a slight powdery note that drifts in and out, but doesn't ruin the scent for me.

 

I think I prefer the more incense-y blends, like Midnight Mass, but I also understand that's not what the Lurid Library was supposed to convey. For what it is, it's quite interesting and accurate.

Came across this thread while doing a search .... I'm enjoying my first Halloween and Yule updates, but they've got me wondering if people wear their seasonal scents during the off season? I mean, would you wear Archangel Winter in June (northern hemisphere!) ? I know the same scents smell different in warm and cool weather, so perhaps the fall and winter scents just wouldn't work in spring and summer? Personally, I love Death of the Grave Digger (snow, soil, opoponax and myrrh) year-round!

 

I wear the fall and winter scents all year, too. I've been wearing Jolasveinar, Midnight Mass, Devil's Night, and Cloister Graveyard In The Snow (from the Salon), even in the summer (just to name a few).

 

However.....since the weather has turned cooler, I've noticed that I don't like the heavy red musk scents as much. I've tried Fenris Wolf, Bloodlust, The Tell Tale Heart, and Lust (which might not have red musk, but to me it's a heavy, sultry scent)......all in the last couple weeks, in the cooler weather......and I end up not liking them. I do like all these scents when it's hot and sweaty outside.

 

I do like warm and spicy scents around the holidays, and I think I wore Shub for New Year's Eve last year if I remember correctly.

Both of the Shojo Beat scents have sort of bright colorful qualities (less so with Midnight Kiss but it's there), which makes sense considering their inspiration. Vampire Tears is a bright citrus-y scent, but there's something dusty about it that's turning me off a little. After about an hour, it starts to remind me of another bpal scent......I'm going to say Polyhymnia, I think. It smells like verbena to me even though that's not listed. I will probably try this one more time but I'm pretty sure it's just not doing much for me. I like Midnight Kiss, though.

I was real curious about this scent, not just because of the reviews.....seems like lots of people are reminded of different things when they wear this.

 

For me, I knew it would be powdery, and it is. And it smells just like what it is.....black musk and amber. But oddly, the powdery-ness doesn't bother me so much. I like the throw more than sniffing up close. The amber seems slightly spicy. Other than that, not much else to add. It is what it is. It kind of works for me, but it's not something I will wear a whole lot. I do like it enough to hold onto the imp.

 

A couple hours later, it started to remind me of Snake Oil. Snake Oil has a powdery note that comes out pretty far in the dry-down, and Haunted did the same thing. It smells like the same note, and I think it's the amber (but I could be wrong).

 

Edit.......Hmm, almost 2 years later, and I think this is the same imp.....I tried it again and wow, I didn't like it at all! Very powdery, and something about it seems papery for some reason. I no longer smell the Snake Oil relation that I did before. It was just bad this time, which I don't get because I like amber, and black musk is not horrible (but admittedly, sometimes powdery.....but not like this). I guess it was just the combination of notes that went wrong. Oh well, plenty of other scents for me to love!

The Lab has a few scents that make me think, "Dirty leather". This is one of them. I don't mean dirty like unwashed, necessarily. It's more like......raw and sexy, kind of dangerous. The leather is a little strong for me to wear this a lot. Honestly this reminds me somewhat of Torture King, but darker and more dangerous.

 

I like the mood of this but the leather comes across a little strong on me. I'm not sure I'd wear it all that much. I think leather works better on me when I can barely detect it, like in Count Dracula and Doc Constantine.

Just skimming through the Boomslang reviews (I picked page 5 at random and scrolled down the whole page), I saw a good number of non-commital or even negative reviews of it. I think that scent got a lot of good word-of-mouth hype, and also the unusual look of the oil itself (try holding it up to sunlight......there is NO light coming through the dark part) made lots of folks want to try it.

 

Personally, I like it but don't love it. The cocoa turns just a tad dusty on me, just like in Velvet. I've kept it to let it age, and also it just looks so gloriously dark. I know that's a dumb reason to keep it, but there ya go.

How could I forget Death Adder?? I'm a fan of vetiver, so I like Death Adder a whole lot. However, it reminds me more of Snake Charmer than Snake Oil, maybe because of the coconut.

 

Western Diamondback smells great to me, but it always fades really fast. After less than an hour it's just a ghost of a scent on me, unfortunately. And that's strange because Snake Oil lasts and lasts on my skin. I've held onto it because I do really like it, maybe I can wear it in a scent locket.

I've tried all of the Snake Pit, and the ones I kept are almost a year old now. IMO, none of them are actually better than Snake Oil. However, I like a good many of them on their own merits. I really like Coral Snake, Cottonmouth, and especially Green Tree Viper. All three of those got better and better with aging. King Cobra and Temple Viper are pretty damn good, too. Out of all those, I think Green Tree Viper is closest to Snake Oil. Especially after it ages, the Snake Oil sort of 'pops out' on that one.

 

I personally didn't like Asp Viper or Australian Copperhead all that much, and swapped mine away. But I think Teggy's right....it's all subjective, and depends on what you like. Although I have to say I wouldn't have expected to like Green Tree Viper all that much......it just sounded so odd. Snake Oil with mint?? Then I tried it.