steffanina

Lenore (LE)- In Bottle: Very "cologne"-y, sharp. Wet: Lemon and herbs. Dry: Soft and pretty on the dry-down, sweet, a little honey-ish, a tiny bit of the plum. Herbal, just a touch of the patchouli. Overall a nice soft blend, and surprisingly different from the bottle scent (yay)! Overall: Not one I'll wear a lot but a nice scent.

Bonfire Night- In Bottle: Whoa! Evil smoke and tar. Wet: Not quite so much smoke but still evil. About 100 pounds of tar with a drop of evil burnt caramel in the mix, and I don't mean toasted, I mean burnt. Dry: Nope, I think the burnt caramel was a sweet fantasy. I feel like I'm nose-down in a puddle of tar, and it's not pretty. It's a fascinating blend, but clearly novel rather than something I want to wear. I wish it really did smell like woodsmoke, because I adore the smell of woodsmoke in my hair in autumn. Overall: Novel but scary.

The Perilous Parlor- In Bottle: Acetone with a hint of pear. Like great-smelling nail polish remover. Wet: Faint, fruity, and head-rush-y acetone. Dry: Fades away in wisps of sweet acetone. Overall: Not noxious but not very exciting for me either.

Beaver Moon 2007- In Bottle: Creamy, sweet, a little cherry-strawberry alcoholic. It smells VERY much like Monster Bait: Closet (which I love). Wet: Strawberries and cream! Quite different from Monster Bait: Closet. And a tiny nutty hint? Like hazelnut? Dry: Musty in the dry-down. Still fruity and foody but I'll have to try it again and see if the mustiness is consistently bothersome. Overall: Yummy to sniff, but conditional.

Havana- In Bottle: Ooh, sweet tobacco. Fascinating! Wet: A tad smoky and sweet. Nothing like the cherry pipe tobacco of Herr Drosselmeyer. There's nothing cherryish in this. Dry: I'm guessing this is that same sweet tobacco scent. It's novel more than delicious, but I'll want to keep this around to sniff. It's very cool! Overall: Novel and interesting!

Calico Jack- In Bottle: Sharp aquatic. Wet: Aquatic. Dry: I can't find anything else to say. I wish aquatics worked for me but they don't, usually. This is not the fault of the scent. I've just been through about 3 aquatics in a row and so am disillusioned and can't find anything new to say about this one. Overall: Aquatic, which is just not my thing.

Pumpkin Patch 3 2007- In Bottle: Creamy and sweet, with a bit of a fruity edge. Wet: Fruuuuuit. Sweet berryish fruit and there's the pumpkin and creaminess. Yum! Dry: There's something heavily cloying in the middle of all this fruit. An odd herbal note. Everything else would be lovely if not for that note! I think it's the same note that CocoaLissette remarked upon in her post. The cloy recedes a little but then it gets musty. Overall: A cloying note that makes this one questionable.

Kill-Devil- In Bottle: Oh, yum. Dark and sugary alcoholic syrup. Wet: Wild--there's a sweet floral in this. A grape-y, carnation-y floral. Dry: A little musty, but a little burnt-sugar sweetness too. I do wish it had been a more pleasing scent for me; maybe I'll try this one in scent lockets. Overall: Maybe scent lockets.

Schrodinger's Cat- In Bottle: Soap and fruit, almost tropical, and sugary sweet candy. Wet: A hint of lavender, soap and sweetness. Hint of citrus. Dry: This fades away in a wistful floral mustiness. Not my kind of scent, but interesting in the bottle. I'll try it in scent lockets! Overall: Scent lockets, perhaps.

Plunder- In Bottle: Very cinnamon and clove and something fruity. I'm imagining peach or apricot because that's the fruit I usually expect with cinnamon and clove. Wet: Cinnamon and clove. Dry: I love foody scents but cinnamon and clove in his concentration is just a little cloying to me. Too strongly clove. It might make a nice scent locket for autumn. Overall: Too strongly clove for me.

Mary Read- In Bottle: A green, spicy aquatic. Wet: Strong aquatic smell, verging on eye-watering like many men's colognes. Not quite at the "insect repellent" level. Oh, wait, I'm getting some Irish Spring off this. Dry: Hm. The dry-down of this is the nicest part, certainly, with that hint of sarsaparilla appearing. And maybe a teensy bit of the clove. I'll try this again but I'm not sure it'll be a frequent flyer for me. Overall: Will try again, but not likely one I'll come back to often.

Al-Shairan- In Bottle: Oh, my, clove and cinnamon and peach, no joke! Wet: Clove and cinnamon and peach. Kind of candle-ish. Dry: Clove and cinnamon are kind of additive, aren't they? I can't say I love it, but it can work well in some combinations. I imagine this scent would work well in a room diffuser, but it's too strong for me on my skin (it doesn't burn, but I'm just not enjoying the sniffing as much as I'd like). Overall: Not really for me.

Opium Poppy- In Bottle: A heavy heavy cloying floral. No musk but still heavy and cloying. Wet: Very floral, very sweet. And cloying. Dry: Floral. I think there's a little jasmine in here, which doesn't like me very much. It has that plastic-powder-diaper thing going on. Overall: Not for me.

Regret born from ceaseless longing: wisteria, white grapefruit, neroli, green tea, jasmine, white ginger, honeysuckle, iris, and tonka. Vampire Tears- (Am excited to get to try this! I got this as a frimp in my Halloween order. Jasmine's not for me but I'm still keen to see how it goes.) In Bottle: Ginger and tea and a bubblegum sweetness. (No diaper-jasmine scent on first whiff, yay.) Wet: Bubblegum and ginger tea. Prettily fragrant. Dry: This has become kind of acetone-y on top of the bubblegum, and that jasmine undertone that I don't like (why why why? I LOVE jasmine tea and jasmine rice--it just does not love me in fragrance oil) is kind of lying about now. Not so noxiously, though! But it's kind of a cloying floral undertone. I am very happy I got to try it but it will probably not be something I want to wear. But, mission accomplished! Overall: Probably not for me.

Crypt Queen- As sweet as death, as deep as the grave: pomegranate, raspberry, gardenia, plum, and rose with patchouli, black pepper, rose musk, and a hint of blood accord. In Bottle: Rotting fruit and heavy evil musk and cedar. Something reminds me of Monster Bait: Ventriloquist Dummy but not nearly so friendly. Wet: Suddenly prettier on the skin- florals bloom faintly, and the fruit is not so rotting, just overripe. Yes, I can see where there's pomegranate in this. The cedar is there too and I don't care for that so much. Dry: Wow. What a morpher this is. Is this much morph even legal? There's a sense of cloying fruit and musk with floral undertones, and the cedar has all but receded. Over time this is one of those scents that goes musty on my skin (so many do, sigh), but it's fascinating all the same. Overall: Remarkable morphage. May not be for me but still interesting.

Spiked Punch (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: Oh, my, this smells so good my nose was touching the top of the bottle before I realized! Fruit punch but not classic fruit punch; it's heavy on the grape, and there's definitely booze in there. Wet: Grape punch with the merest hint of alcohol. There's a floral undertone to it as well. Dry: This is amazing. The booze note amps up with time and you start feeling self-conscious that others around you are going to smell you and think you've been on a three-day bender. It stays fruity and grape-delicious, though! Driving in the car I thought I was going to get drunk off the fumes. I love this. Overall: I love.

Sugar-Slathered Candied Apple (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: An acetone apple with caramel swirls. Wet: Smells just like Creepy, which I love. Highly fragrant apple--that's that acetone hint--with that caramel hint. Yum. And the caramel's getting stronger. Dry: I really feel like I've found another bottle of Creepy, which does not make me sad except I would have liked it to have been different and new-smelling to me. On the other hand, Creepy is a discontinued scent and I love it, so, how nice to have more of what I love! Apple and caramel and the caramel never smells too burnt or plasticky.--You know, I think this is more caramelly than Creepy. I'll do a comparison sometime. Overall: Yummy; very much like Creepy, which I love.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: Pumpkin and spices and butter and creaminess. Evokes Jack quite a bit. So far noooo problem with any of this. Wet: Pumpkin and butter. Smells very much like Jack. I would have loved Jack but it betrayed me by going musty on my skin in a short time. Let's see. So far delicious. Dry: A little bit of must comes out, but not bad! For some reason I get a better impression of this than I do of Jack's long-term, though they are very similar. If anyone asked me if they should try to get this I'd say they could grab Jack as a GC and come pretty close, but something seems fractionally different. Maybe that's just because I know I paid more for it? Overall: A delicious scent; very like Jack but less musty in the long-term.

Egg'd Mailbox (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: Sweet, light egg custard. Not as rich and spicy as an eggnog scent would be. Wet: Very light and subtly sweet. The merest hint of milkiness. It gets stronger as it starts to dry, in a great way! Dry: It gets stronger. Sweeter. More deliciously custardy. It never gets spicy eggnogish, though! This is not anything to be sad about as this is fantastic in its own right. What a yummy lovely scent. The sweetness is like spun sugary candy underneath the custard. Overall: Love it. A favorite already.

TP'd Tree (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: Lightly aquatic--it's the scent of scented toilet paper! That clean airy non-floral scent that you know has florals somewhere except it doesn't quite seem so. There really is that hint of airyness and dirt and wetness like wet TP draped around a damp tree. Wet: The aquatic scent heightens. Not a sharp eye-watering aquatic, though! Dry: Is it all right to call an aquatic a *wet* aquatic? Does that sound too redundant? But I mean it seriously! This is not merely floral-y and aquatic, it's damp. It really evokes wet toilet paper. Remarkable. Overall: Novel, more than something I love, but a cool kind of novel.

Marshmallow Poof (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: SUGARED PLAY-DOH. I am not making this up. That oily clayey Play-Doh smell. This is not, by the way, distressing me. Wet: Lightly lemon sugar. The Play-Doh scent is only hinted at. Dry: Sugar softness with the Play-Doh hint persistent. Novel. I ain't giving this one up, it's too interesting! Overall: Interesting in a really good way.

Pumpkin Smash (LE) (BPTP)- In Bottle: Fruity pumpkin, a bit of butter, spices but still fresher smelling than baked pumpkin pie. Not nearly as clove-y as Jack. It's really delicious! Wet: Sweet and delicious, nutmeggy, like the pumpkin cookie dough you'll be baking soon. *eats own wrist* Dry: Pumpkin cookies. Cooked a little on the raw side. Just delicious. Already my favorite pumpkin BPAL scent, I think. Overall: Wonderful.

Pain- In Bottle: Minty; pepperminty like tea tree oil. Wet: Heh, that really works with the name--this is such a sharp scent. Not quite as biting as a doctor's office but there's something medicinal about it. Dry: Not strong at all. A lightly herbal mint that fades rapidly. Overall: Fast fader, but interesting: I might keep my imp around to sniff.

Mad Hatter- In Bottle: Something lightly minty and with something just a bit...foodie? Wet: Huh. I can't smell a lot. Dry: GONE. The merest memory of powder. Overall: Fades like my laptop screen in sunlight--immediately.

Mr. Nancy- In Bottle: Yummy rum and spices and a hint of the lime. Wet: The lime is a little stronger, like lime Life Savers, but the buttery spice blooms underneath. Yow, is this yummy. Dry: This is such a friendly, wearable scent, with its citrusy lime and the warmth of the spice and bay rum and the hint of something mellow that I'm thinking is the tobacco. I'm so glad I got this. Overall: A great scent.