Gardenia

A legendary Assyrian queen, often identified with Sammu-Ramat, the wife of Shamshi-Adad V, she was believed to be the daughter of the goddess Atargatis. Her youth was filled with mythic adventure, and her otherworldly beauty and voluptuous sexuality ensured her two advantageous marriages. When she took the reins of power of Empress of Assyria, she expanded her kingdom by conquering much of Mesopotamia and Asia. She beautified and revitalized Babylon, and implemented improvements in Nineveh that helped to moderate the flow of the Tigris. She was renowned for her military and political prowess, as well as her ferocious and merciless sexual appetite. HER PERFUME Red musk, pomegranate, orange blossom, and melon. In the bottle: Mmm.. the red musk really stands out here, and there's a soft sweetness in the background. Wet: I can really start getting hints of the orange blossom, along with the red musk. Dry: The red musk really seems to be the predominant note here, if you like red musk I recommend trying this scent. In the background the pomegranate adds a nice tartness to the sweet scent of the orange blossom and melon.. something is also adding just a bare hint of spice (the musk, perhaps?), very lovely. The balance of the notes in this blend is really quite amazing. Nothing truly overpowers anything else for me, and they all work together nicely. Red musk is normally one of my "meh" notes, but this works out very well, and it isn't an overpowering musk scent, for those who may be a bit worried about that.

Known as Pimoko, the sun-daughter, Jingu was an Empress of Japan who served as regent and de facto ruler between the time of the death of her husband and the ascension of her son, Emperor Ojin. Sure that knowledge of her husband’s death would bring discord to her realm, she managed to keep his passing a secret, and successfully put down numerous insurrections in his name. Although she was pregnant with the future emperor of Japan, she donned armor and rode into battle, leading the conquest of Silla. Sakura, plum wine, and rice flower. When smelling this from the bottle, I was not too sure if I would like this.. It's a bit like walking into a perfume store, very heavy and floral. However, after adding some to the bath it turned out to be quite nice. Each of the three notes listed play very nicely with each other. The sakura (which matches well with the perfume oil) is light and sweet, and mixes with the rice flower to create somewhat of a creamy floral. The plum wine adds a very nice touch, as its tartness cuts through the florals and keeps them from being too overpowering. Definitely nice in the bath, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it is when applied after a shower.

Lawn Gnome is a blend of fruity and earthy. The moss and patchouli really stand out, but the creamy fruit adds a bit of sweetness. It's an interesting blend of foody and deep earth.

I was a bit afraid to try this, as marshmallow, sugar, and dandelion are all trouble notes for me (plastic, burnt sugar and soap respectively), still.. I had to at least give it a try, and I'm glad I did. It's sweet marshmallows in the decant. On my skin it became very close to going soapy, but as it dried down it just became a wonderful sugar and marshmallow scent. Sweet, a little bit light, but it stays true and doesn't morph into something awful. Finally, a BPAL sugar scent that I can love!

Goat's milk. Now there's something I never thought I'd want to smell like... still, it seemed interesting so I decided to try a decant. I'm so glad I did, this is delicious. It's a creamy milk, slightly tangy but sweet. It's the main note for me, with a background of earthy figs. I don't get any myrrh out of this (which is a shame as I do love myrrh), just goat's milk and fig. I don't need much of the oil, only a drop or so on each wrist. It has a fair throw, and great lasting power - 12 hours, so far. Rich and creamy, sightly sweet, and a bit earthy - very comforting, really. A simply blend, but so well done. I'll definitely be buying a bottle of this. Edit (4/5/10) This is still one of my favorites. It's really just perfect for a chilly or rainy day.

In the decant it's a very clean, fresh, aquatic. Wet on my skin I get an aquatic with a hint of something such as honey dew melon. Just a hint.. that comes out again once in a while as it is dry, as well. This is a fairly unisex blend, as others have said. Lightly aquatic, it reminds me of a lighter version of Thunder Moon. I don't really get much metallic from this, just that crisp aquatic. Very nice.

In the bottle it's a very fruity juniper. Wet on my skin it's still pretty fruity, but the juniper really pops out. As it dries down the juniper does fade out a bit, and I agree with those who described this as fizzy.. reminds me a bit of a fruit cola. Sadly, I think the juniper is really ruining this for me, it smells a bit like a household cleaner (lemon might also be adding to that).

In the bottle I get a lot of the myrrh and cherry, fruity and sweet. I haven't actually used it in the tub yet (that comes tonight!), but I did apply some to my arms after my shower this morning. It was very cherry at first, but after some time passed the musk and myrrh came out more. It's a sweet, somewhat incense like scent, with a fruity background. Oh yeah, I'm going to need more of this.

This smells like apples and honey on me, at first. A very nice fruity-floral, with a touch of honey to add depth to it. However, my skin does something weird after a time and it starts to smell like sour, rotting apples.. I normally don't have a problem with apple blends, or apple blossom, or any of the other notes here - but something with this particular blend goes very bad on me.

I get a sweet, somewhat plastic, banana from this, and heaping amounts of moist dirt (such as Graveyard Dirt). While it is an.. interesting blend, it's not really something I see myself wearing.

I love charisma. When I wear this I can feel my cha stat boot up by at least 25! (OMG, nerd joke. ) Seriously though, I have a little medicine dropper I use just for this scent, and I apply one drop to each of my chakras - occasionally I will do a drop on each ankle and wrist, as well, but not always.. and, the results are noticeable. It helps me to be more confident, and people generally seem more interested in me - even if I'm not really interacting with them much. (Waiters, for example, haha.. fun times with charisma? ) Who knows, maybe it's just a mind over matter thing, but ya know, whatever works! Definitely makes me want to try out other TALs.

Black Lace is, on me, a musky vanilla with a just a bare hint of tobacco. It doesn't really sound like something I'd be into, but it's really an amazing scent. I've had this bottle since it was released, and man, it just keeps getting better with age.

A sweet graham cracker crust, banana pudding from a box, and whipped cream. Delicious.

The vial smells like sweet, yet somewhat sharp, blueberry. Interesting, when I smell it on my skin up close I don't really get much scent.. something sweet and vanilla, like cake. It's only when I catch whiffs of it away from my nose that I smell blueberries. They're candied blueberries.. or no, perhaps like pie filling, that sort of scent - it's a little.. fake, though? It's a nice scent, but not really the sort of blueberry I've been searching for.

Mmm.. honeysuckle, is that you in the imp? I don't know, but it smells goooood. Sweet, and a little spicy one it is on my skin. A sweet honey-floral. What could that be...? The parsley, perhaps? I dunno, but whatever it is that's in the background is ruining this for me. If I could remove whatever that bit is, this would be a perfect scent for me.. ah, well.

Ooh, very smoky in the imp. On me I get the frankincense and myrrh, but they're pretty overpowered by the smoke. Sadly, this is not a nice bonfire scent on me, there's something.. artificial about it. It doesn't work for me, but if you're a fan of smoky blends, it's definitely worth a try.

In the imp it's a very sharp floral. Makes my nose itch.. Ah.. as soon as I apply it calms right down, though. It's aquatic, a bit green, and lightly floral. Not really getting any citrus, though. As it dries down, the florals do start to come out a bit more again.. It smells quite a bit like a "traditional" floral perfume at this point, which really isn't my thing as it tends to irritate my nose and eyes, and as it did in the imp, it's starting to do that now on my skin, as well. It doesn't change much from that, sadly, I think I'm going to have to wash it off. It's not a bad scent, but it's really not my kinda scent either.

Ya know.. I don't think I could beat this review. It pretty much sums Dorian up nicely! The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite books, so I knew I had to try this, and honestly, it was so long ago, I don't know why my review never made it here! I make my man wear this (yeah, alright, I wear it also at times ) , because very masculine scents just don't work out on him.. but this, this is elegant and light, and still slightly masculine at the same time. The tea is the main note on him, it's black tea but the sugar and vanilla keep it from being too strong. It's only slightly musky, just enough to add a bit of interest to the background of the scent. Perfect! Not to mention, holy crap does this have staying power. It lasts for over 24 hours on the both of us. I wore it to bed one night, and the bed smelled of Dorian for a good while as well.. ahh.. now that's a good way to drift off to sleep..

Oh man, this is alllll mahogany on me. Mahogany smells good, but isn't especially something that I would personally like to smell like. Although, I wonder if it could be used to scent some of my wooden craft store boxes..

Three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants. This isn't quite as epically delicious as Drink Me was, but it's still pretty tasty. It smells like sweet vanilla cakes, but there's a hint of slightly sharp fruit (assuming the currants) in the background which keep it from being overly sweet. The longer I wear it, the more the fruit fades. Eventually I'm left with light vanilla cake. This isn't as thickly sweet and foody as Drink Me was, it's much lighter.. would be nice for those who aren't all that into the more heavy foody scents, but still want something a bit sweet. As for me, I think I'll stick with Drink Me.

I wanted this to work so bad. I bet you can guess how this story turns out.. It's indistinctly sweet in the bottle, but on my skin it smells like burning plastic.

(Rez'd version.) Snake Oil has never worked for me, so I was hoping this could be my sexy incense blend. Sadly, this didn't work on me either. Snake Charmer just seems to want to be a bitter powdery scent, even after I let it age for a while. Ah, well.. It's off to someone who loves it now.

This smells like cool, icy fir trees. It's an amazingly done blend which truly reminds me of a snowy forest. Very nice for around Yule, but I'm discovering it's also quite nice for hot summer days as it reminds me of cooler times.

This may as well be a CG version of Rose Red or the Peacock Queen. It's not quite as deep as either of those, but it's very close. It's a beautiful rose scent which doesn't become artificial or powdery on my skin - as florals will often do. I really do love this blend, but as I already have bottles of the two previously mentioned LEs.. no bottle for me. (Yet, anyway!)

In the vial and wet on my skin it smells just like those orange marshmallow circus peanuts. After it dries down it becomes somewhat boozy and smoky.. I actually liked the marshmallow candies, this.. not so much..