myoubi

I got this as a sniffy from eviltemptressdq, thanks everso and mmmm... I am content. So far I'm 3 for 3 on the Salon blends (Lucretia, Great Cry, and now this). I'm seriously considering this as a big bottle purchase. It starts off quite green, and crisp but I don't get the sharpness that others complain of; as it driesit retains its green quality, but the floral notes emerge, couched in resiny softness and laid over a hint of musk. Due to a few overenthusiastic first ventures I've learned not to trust my first impressions until I have fourth impressions to back them up; but this is really looking like it'll be a bottle. I could stand smelling like this every day.

I wanted to like this, really. None of the sexy/slinky scents ever work on me It smells powdery and sickeningly sweet, and reminds me rather of Gluttony. I'm sure on someone this smells gorgeous. On me, it smells loathsome. Someone else can have it!

I love and adore La Fee Verte -- it is by far the loveliest BPAL blend I've tried, which is saying something -- and so I was hoping Absinthe would at least bear some resemblance to it, so I could maybe layer it with Dorian or something to produce a sweeter, creamy approximation... Blech! Sharp! Like sticking freezing needles into my nose. Needles freshly-sterilised with alcohol. I didn't even wait to see if it morphed -- washed it off after ten minutes. So very very not me. This is my second crack at it, incidentally. Not yummy at all.

I was thinking about this just a week ago! Song/Scent combinations that have passed through my collection: "You're My Angel" (Styles and Breeze) -- Snow Angel "Twist" (Goldfrapp) -- Smut "Every Me Every You" (Placebo) -- House of Mirrors Songs I need scents for: "It's No Good" (Depeche Mode) "Cells" (The Servant) -- this is my very favourite song. If anyone can help with this I'd give my undying thanks "World in My Eyes" (The Cure cover version)

IN BOTTLE AND WET ON SKIN: Spicy resiny dark. H'mm.. I don't usually love scents this dark. It doesn't seem distinctly masculine to me, but it's definately not femme-y. We'll see. [NB: while it was drying my roommate -- who is normally indulgently indifferent to my smellies -- sniffed, said 'mm! I really like that!' and glued her nose to my wrist for about fifteen seconds. This is the first time she's actually expressed an opinion, other than a nod-and-smile 'that's nice'... DRYDOWN: quite sweet on me! maybe it's my skin chemistry, everything comes out too sweet on me; I wonder what this would be like on a fellow. This actually kind of remidns me of the drydown of Freak Show, which I already have a bottle of. EDITED A SECOND TIME: I picked up another bottle of this on a whim. If I give it an hour or so, it dries down to a resiny softness that I actually quite like -- and it didn't go supersweet on me this time around. I could go either way, but now that I've got another bottle I'll keep it I think.

WET ON SKIN: ooh, a bit spicy! a bit of incense, rather sharp actually. DRYING: oh, now the earth is coming out.. it softens considerably, the incense is still there but the rose is coming out. it's quite subtle, my skin kind of eats it but leaves a trail behind -- enough of one that I want to keep the bottle. DRY: I get pomegranate (yum), myrrh, earth and just a little rose and vanilla. VERDICT: very beautiful, unusual and elegant. I feel like a slightly-exotic lady, very self-possessed when I'm wearing this. Which is odd, because I'm really not a pentacles girl (swords are more my game). not one I'll wear a whole lot, but maybe it'll be a grounding influence for me.

wow, I can't believe I never reviewed this. I got it as a frimp from a swap (I think) and kept it even though I know I'll never wear it, just because it smells so, umm, accurate. First off this stuff is hella strong. It's stronger than my Monster Bait: Closet which can be detected a floor away (no kidding). The dominant note is red musk, and it's sweet and spicy and oozes with sex, but definately not romance. If pure sex smelled good, that would be Lust. unfortunately, it's way too strong for me. I will stick to Envy, my very favourite sin.

mm! I'm not usually a florals gal, but I had a good feeling about this one. Not disappointed It smells quite soft on me, which I was looking for -- delicately floral underneath, but that lovely amber scent keeps the flowers under control. The musk makes it sexy but not overpowering, and because it's so soft, even when it wafts up from my skin I don't feel like I'm being hit in the face by a wall of scent. It blends into my skin quite a bit -- I know that's weird, but that's what I wanted. something delicately scented that smells rather like 'me, only better' after a few minutes the musk comes out in slightly more force, and I get a bit of the spice mentioned in the description. yumm. we'll see how I feel once I've worn it for a few days, but I might need to collect this.

awwright, I'm reviewing an aged bottle and the gal who sent it to me said it smelled a *lot* nicer to her when it was new, so this may be a bit wonky. But.. WOWsweet. Vanilla, lots of that, and the usual suspect -- Play-Doh. Doesn't change, doesn't morph, and my skin feels curiously slightly gummy where i dabbed the oil. We are not fond. I'll pass it around to some of my friends who like the sweets and see if any of them like it... otherwise it's up to ebay. I'm sure *some*one in the universe will go, "Yesss! OMG, Aged O! I *love* that stuff!"

that's interesting... I'm a Cancer, moon in Aries and Aquarius ascendant, so I've basically got everything but Earth in my chart, but my fragrance likes seem to be all over the map. I like resins but hate woods; I like amber in moderation, but I absolutely loathe cinnamon and almond; and vanilla (the underrepresented element) is something I'm quite drawn to. I've always associated resins with earth rather than air -- there's something wonderfully grounding about them, myrrh to me is like being wrapped in a blanket rather than feeling floaty or airy or off the ground. I'm not sure what to think. maybe i should start trying more florals...

This is the second Salon blend I've tried, and it's two for two. They are, so far, stunning -- on a different level than the rest of the catalogue, and that is no mean feat. I can't pick out individual notes in Lucretia, but it just makes me want to stick my nose to my wrist and inhale. It's a woman's perfume, and (being eighteen) I don't have many of those -- it smells rich and sophisticated and a little haughty, it's not sweet or wispy at all. It would be quite at home on a neck dripping with diamonds. I wouldn't call it sexy, per se, but docile and demure it isn't. I wouldn't wear this every day -- it would rather be like wearing a mink coat to go buy groceries -- but it's so beautiful that I'm tempted to get hold of a bottle for those (very) few occasions when I would wear it. Lovely.

How beautiful. This is my favourite currently-available blend I've tested so far, and lands at number two on my overall top ten, just below the inimitable La Fee Verte. It's a warm, dry scent, and while it's certainly not definitively femenine, I don't get the cologney vibe a lot of people have mentioned. It's very subtle, slightly sweet, and it has body without being -heavy- (a problem for me -- I can't wear heavy fragrances, they just don't love me back ) I get velvety resin-smells with sandalwood, and the amber and the red musk come out to play about 20 minutes after application. So glad I found a bottle. Will be ordering more post-haste.

IN BOTTLE: Good Lord, strong! Umm... booze. Lots of alcohol. and sweet. WET: I smell like a bar. A smoky, slightly sweaty bar. DRYING: ...now I smell like musky charcoal. THis is - interesting. DRY: waah! I wanted this to love me I'll give it another try later, but right now I smell like smoke again. It's not unpleasant -- just not smutty enough. ETA: okay, after a while it sweetens up, and I smell kinda hot. I like Trick 2 more as my sexy scent, though... I'll sit on this for a while, but maybe swap it for something I know I like more.

In the imp: mmph, rose, lavender. meh. soft floral. On skin: ooh! frankincense! lovely. florals in the background, the musk is developing.. Dry, on skin: It's quite delicate and femenine; really, very lovely. sweet and floral but not cloying. The frankincense 'grounds' it and prevents the rose from soaring over the top (yecch). I'll keep the imp since I can't bear to part with something so lovely and well-blended; unfortunately, I'm not a florals girl, so I won't end up wearing it often :/

A twisted teatime tart: apricot and sweet clove. In the imp, it's a nice apricot-clove blend, although the clove is dominant. Wet, it's allll clove. As it dries, it's clove with a hint of sweet apricot... I wanted so to like this one. I'll keep the imp around, but I it might be a little too clove-y. nice for winter months, rather. very light throw.

Rose. Still rose. Yup. Still rose. My, what a lovely delicate flower! Too bad what I was looking for was leather. --- EDIT: SO glad I tried this again. After over a year someone frimped me some of this. I wanted to wear it yesterday, and was reduced to lying down and tipping the vial upside-down on my neck to get the last drops of it out. The leather cuts the sweetness of the rose and makes it fresh. It goes /everywhere/ -- I wore it to class, to a semi-casual dinner, to a rave on NYE. It's a very subtle scent, but one that I think I need a 5mL of.

I dressed up as Monster Bait for hallowe'en (so of course I wore my Closet. but yeah. BPAL was the inspiration for my costume.)

I need a boy so I can make him wear this! She of the Busted Sniffer detects... mm, tea mostly, but not sweet at all. Vanilla underneath, but it's not femenine, just sexy. A touch of jasmine underneath. There's something anchoring all that, it's not at all girly. As it dries, the vanilla becomes more apparent and the musk comes out to play a bit. Sadly, it's far too masculine for me; but I like it so much I think I'll keep it until I ensnare my next boy, and then make him wear it

DISCLAIMER: world's worst nose etc. etc. PRECONCEPTIONS: thought I'd hate this because I didn't want to smell like booze... IMP: minty-mint. sharp, slightly unpleasant. DRY ON SKIN: ooh. nice! gently sweet, buttery bourbon-smell that doesn't make me smell like I'm just coming off a week-long binge. This is quite pleasant. I don't get a lot of mint, but there's a little if I'm looking for it; mostly just gentle buttery-sweet, reminds me of Kentucky. Maybe this will be a nice summer scent... LATER:...and we have baby powder. alcoholic baby powder. I'll keep the imp in the desperate hope that someday this will work. the rational part of me says it never will. Gah.

I'm bad -- mostly I bought Midway for the pretty label I didnt' expect to really love this one -- by and large I try to avoid smelling like a confectionary, but everyone else seemed so hyped about it that I figured I'd give it a try. it is yummy! sweet and sugary without being sickly at all, for the first time a candy scent that doesn't make me gag. It's surprisingly wearable as well, it's not too much of a 'concept scent' to wear out and about. It's my standard Silly Day scent. thank God for superficial girls and lovely bottle art.

You know, it's not actually as heinous as I was expecting. I saw the name and thought 'Oh god no...' I didn't remember the notes, but I remembered reading the description and thinking Not Ever in a Million Years. It also looks absolutely vile and dark and murky in the imp. In the imp -- vetiver. vetiver and I are not friends. and... bogwater. And yet! It's heavy -- but I get an odd sweetness to it, which is lovely. Less is more with musk, IMO, but this manages to pull it off. It's quite vanilla-y on my skin. I don't get any of the stinkiness a lot of people seem to be getting -- this one comes off as, really, quite sweet on me, maybe even a little too sweet. Weird. Sort of nice, but way too heavy and rather too sweet. I'll hang onto it for a bit, but probably off to swap.

Holy staying power, Crack Van. This stuff lasted through four rounds of soapy scrubbing, and I can still smell the faintest tint of it on my wrist. What do I have to do to get this stuff off me? As for the review: it was weird. It was just weird. it was both icky, slightly nauseating and then perversely nice to smell, even though I was offended I kept sniffing my wrist every five seconds. I don't think I can take that much schizophrenia from a perfume. Basically, it was more complex than the straight-up I-am-a-bakery scent that I'd expected, and it was even a little spicy and interesting; but just not for me. Very weird.

Heavens! Must-hoard-never-be-without-it-again... Before I switched to buying BPAL, one of my favourite scents was YSL Cinema. My only complaint was that it was a bit too heavy for me; but otherwise it was perfect, sexy without being a come-on and jim-dandy with my skin chemistry. I got attention whenever I wore it. Lots of lovely scents, but I never found anything to replace it. Melisande is Cinema without that heaviness; it's a little sweeter and it's rather more subtle, toned down enough to be a daywear scent instead of just an evening one. Versatile enough to be worn anywhere if I just feel like it; subtle but not meek. My most discerning sniff-tester took a whiff, thought, took another sniff, and said in a surprised tone, "Actually, that's quite nice. That... smells quite nice on you." That's the first time he's ever made a positive comment without any reservations about any of my scents. sold.

PRECONCEPTIONS: I wanted a come-do-me scent, and this seemed to fit the bill, according to prettymuch everyone... IN THE BOTTLE: mm, spicy... spicy is good. okay, this is promising. ON SKIN: Attack of the Vanilla! oh my goodness, this is far sweeter than I expected, and i've been really moving away from sweet scents lately. I was counting on a lot more spice here, and right now I smell like poor-quality Essence of Vanilla perfume. Oh please don't let this be another let-down... ...but wait! about 20 minutes after application it starts to change, and by half an hour the balance has shifted. The vanilla-sweet is still there, but it's just the mellow base to show off the spices. mmmm, I can't stop sniffing my wrist. It's not sharp or piercing in any way, and it's not aggressively sexy as I expected - but it does have that heavy-lidded languor. I'd say that it's not a girl walking out in a thong, more like a woman stretching her arms up lazily, and somehow without ever doing anything overt, making that movement incredibly sexy. Mmmmmm. keeper. ETA: So aged Snake Oil is a totally different animal altogether. I recently acquired a 6-month-old bottle, and it's completely lost that SuperVanilla stage. It's a lot richer and hugs closer to my skin, and gets to the murmuring spices almost right away. Yum.

I want to wash this scent off as fast as possible so this will be brief. aquatic - yes. dark - yes. vaguely floral - yes. But something about it reminds me a little of syrup of Ipecac. It really ought to be lovely, but my skin is turning it into.. something else. I wish I could've liked this one