allidavie

I ordered a second bottle of this on pure instinct yesterday with the lunacy update, because I only got my first bottle of it today. Heaven, heaven, heavean. Totally aquatic without too much ozone. Smells like being caught in a thunderstorm while sitting on the beach - ozone, water, salt, and not much else - maybe a bit of some dune flowers floating on the wind. Totally unisex without being overtly masculine. Not perfumey, but not so subtle you don't notice it. Would make a fabulous addition to shampoo - actually, now that I think about it, it's quite like GothRosary's Seattle Rain, only more oceany and less rainy. Yum. ETA: Macha is right - Kingsport doesn't really smell like being caught in a thunderstorm - it smells like it the air when a huge summer thunderstorm has just passed, and it's sort of grey out with the sun breaking through a few clouds, and you go back on the beach. The sand is wet, it's suddenly 10 degrees colder, and everything smells clean and salty all at once. But I'm an East Coaster, so our beaches might smell a bit different!

I second Dublin! And for wood, if not woods, Queen. If you can find some Skadi it is not to be believed, but dublin is an excellent sub for it.

Smells exactly like a melting orange creamsicle on me. With a whiff of bain de soleil spicy-carnation-amberness in the background. Which is a very, very good thing. Especially when its 28 degrees and slushy out.

A gentle white scent, breezes laced with the scent of springtime blooms and citrus. Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla. Zephyr reminded me of snuggling up against my Mom when I was little at the beach - it had some smell to it that was similar to something she used to wear. It wasn't quite suntan lotion, but something else.... which I finally realized was the smell of old-skool neutrogena glycerin soap (the clear brown bars). Once I made that association, that's all I can get Zephyr to smell like. Which isn't a bad smell at all, just not one I'd go out of my way to get more of.

Hmm, didn't realize this was discontinued - I got this as a gift from Beth. I must admit I expected to hate it, as I absolutely hated the movie Cabaret after being forced to watch it for what seemed like forty-seven hours in hebrew school, so I expected to similarly dislike the scent of this. I was nicely surprised. The musk part of this is lovely, very strong, but beautiful. Unfortunately, after about fifteen minutes this turned too all jasmine on me and jasmine and I don't get on. At all. Which is really too bad, because the red musk is gorgeous. I can't wait to get an imp of Scherehazade. Well, I'm sure someone will love getting their hands on more of this one - to the swap pile you go!

I always test things without looking at the description, which I think did a disservice to this one. I just got a light, fairly sweet, unremarkable floral that disappeared almost immediately. Maybe I'm in a BPAL rut, but I'm at the point where if I don't immediately love something I have about ten others in the "same" category that do the job better, so I may not be giving new imps a chance. But I'd say that empyreal mist has the same "feel" for me as la belle (shall we call her Patti for short? ) even though they don't smell alike. E.g., if I were in the kind of mood that I wanted to wear a light, sweetish but not sweet floral I'd wear Empyreal Mist, which I love, and not La Belle, because while I like La Belle it wasn't anything special to my nose.

I feel bad that I can't come up with the beautiful reviews everyone else does. Mine for grandmother of ghosts goes something like this: In vial - smells good, soft wood. On me at first - yum, smells great, woody and vaguely floral. Two minutes later - arggh, too floral, too floral, get it off me. Three minutes later - hmm, I wonder what's on nick at nite? I am too lazy to get out of bed to wash this stuff off, but it sure is STRONG. The problem is, I tried three other perfume on (all different body parts) at the same time last night and pretty much had different degrees of the same reaction to all of them. I think I'm reaching my BPAL saturation point - if something doesn't smell totally amazing to me right away, I'm kind of writing it off in my head the second it morphs into something I don't adore. Because I have 50 more that I already adore waiting for me...

I actively dislike the smell of jasmine and while I like the smell of Rose in theory, I've never met one that worked on me and have given up trying. It looks like I'm out on my own with this one, but delight was no delight on me. I think there's something wrong with my nose because any time I smell jasmine I smell nail polish remover, and delight smelled overwhelmingly of acetone on me. Obviously, this is a problem unique to my skin chemistry because I seem to be alone on this. It was also extremely strong and the acetone note continued during drydown. I would have washed it off but I was too tired (and too busy smelling my other arm, which I had tested Verdandi on). It's a shame, but at this point if an oil is red (dragon's blood is always too sweet on me) or has jasmine or rose in it I can almost guarantee I won't like how they smell on me. Delight is no exception. Darn skin I will be regifting this one.

I always try things before reading their descriptions because I like to be surprised (and I like to guess at the notes and then laugh at how ridiculously off I am). In the bottle Verdandi had the same sharp note that I detect in Somnus that I'm not a big fan of (though I use it anway because it works so darn well, but that's a whole other review). However, that note disappeared the second I put it on. I couldn't quite believe how great Verdandi smelled once I put it on - to me there was a strong toasted note at first, smelled somewhere between toasted almond and coconut and hazelnut, and then it morphed into this beautiful light floral. I'm usually not a big fan of florals, but kept thinking "I must be wrong and I really do like florals because I love this." And now, d'oh, I see it was apple after all, not some elusive flower I'd never smelled before. Anyway, I adored Verdandi - I love the description of the Norn as "becoming" because Verdandi smells to me like February - "becoming" spring. It smells to me like an early spring version of Skadi, or Snow White becoming slightly, errr, more naughty and less snowy. A winner. If I didn't already have so much oil to go through it would be a big bottle for sure. Someday...

Yup, I got snickerdoodle from this too. Which I like much better than sugar cookies. I'm not big on the foody perfumes, and I initially thought this was too sweet. But then it started to grow on me. And grow on me. And grow on me. It's fabulous - it reminds me of aqualina pink sugar except instead of being cut with the slightly fruity berry scent it is cut with cinnamon and cloves. YUUUMMM! I can't wait to ge tthis one in my oil burner.

As a lifelong "fancier of ocean air," I have to say that this one is one of my favorites. I don't get any citrus or floral at all - on me this smells EXACTLY like swimming/sailing in the ocean during a rainstorm. And I can't imagine anything that smells better to me than that. I'm going to have to get a 10ml of this. I think the smell of it relaxes me so much that it's probably a better sleep blend for me than even Somnus!!!

Just tried this for the first time - didn't even realize I had it, I thought it was another Queen Gertrude (which is AWFUL on me). However, Queen is just fabulous on me. Smells like rosewood, and cypress, and vanilla, and pink peppercorn with a hint of chocolate and maybe musk? or amber? seriously, this probably works with my body chemistry better than almost everything I've tried. And I didn't even realize it was a voodoo scent til I came to review it. Woo hoo World, look out for me.

I don't think it smells that great (very sharp green and lavender) but MAN does this work. And that's coming from a total insomniac. I use this every night and am hoping that after a while when I smell it I'll just fall asleep as sort of a pavlovian response. I'm buying a 10ml during the next lunacy and will be making this into a linen spray as well.

I got my Hunter Moon order today - it is really not what I expected - in fact, I like it even more than I expected. I was all sad that I had auctioned off my second Mabon but this is like a slightly winter-ier, darker version of Mabon. Sort of like when a commercial perfume does a light or spring version of something, Hunter Moon is a winter version of Mabon. they smell a lot alike, but I detect maybe some licorice and smoke notes in hunter moon, and a bit less of the apple-y sweetness of Mabon. It is an absolutely perfect late autumn scent. Much as I love blue and red moon, I wouldn't wear them in the winter - I'd go for the dark spiciness of hunter moon. Yum. Love it!

Gingerbread poppet is way more gingerbready than the gingerbreadman, IMHO. Gingerbread man smells fabulous but has a strong lemony note in it, to me my nose at least (I think I have a weird nose, so take everything I saw with a grain of salt.) Gingerbread Poppet smells like actual gingerbread - the moist, chewy kind, not the kind a gingerbread house would be made of. They definitely complement each other, I used the Gingerbread Man Souffle that the lovely JazzieCazzie sent me yesterday along with some poppet and I smelled delish. OTOH, I did have a very strong urge to go downstairs to starbuck to get a slice of their gingerbread (which is quite yummy). I don't think you'll get any answers on the egg nog because it is new this year.

I'm so bummed, because from the description I thought this was going to be the one for me, but on me it smells closer to an actual shallot than anything else. It has the same note that Has No Hanna had that turns to celery seed on me and that's all I can smell. *sulks* And now five minutes after I put it on I can barely smell it. Remember the old joke "the food's terrible and the portions are so small?" This one doesn't smell good on me and the smell fades fast!

I've actually just been removing the reducer caps with my fingernail. Just wedge your nail between the plastic rim and the glass rim and pull up - you will need to keep turning the bottle around as you do this, but with a little effort they pop right out. You could also use the blade of paring or swiss army knife (carefully, obviously). I don't really like this method, though, because the reducer cap itself has so much oil in it.

I have really bad allergies and my ENT described it like this - basically, your body can only take so many allergens. The level your body can take varies from person to person (mine's really low) , but it's sort of a set point. So if you're allergic to dust, cats, and whatever's in blood amber and the first time you tried the blood amber you were at your spic and span house and the next time you try it you spent the whole day at your messy, cat-owning friend's house you might be fine the first time you use it but have a reaction the second time. Does that make sense? So if you can figure out if there's other stuff you're allergic to and can get rid of it, you might not have as much of a problem. Also you may just want to try it on a part of your arm that has thicker skin - almost all bpal oils cause an instant reaction if I put them in the crook of my elbow, so I tend to just put them near my shoulders and the fronts of my wrists...

This smelled exactly, exactly like nail polish remover on me from the moment I put it on. I gave it time to settle down, but still I got the acetone smell. It may be that violets and I don't get along... The first (and only) time I tried to use a Lush Bathos bubble bar I literally jumped out of the tub so I didn't have to be in the bathroom while it drained. Off to the swaps with you, Wanda!

I don't get any ginger at all from this one, even in the bottle. This smells like a much better version of Fresh's Sugar scent - like how the body lotions smells instead of the perfume. Or if there was such a thing as Aqualina Yellow Sugar, it would smell like this. It's perfect - not too tart, not too sweet, not too anything - just perfect sweet, mild, lemony goodness.

So funny the range of opinions on this one. I am not a big fan of the sweet fruit scents at all, and I love Mabon. It doesn't smell like cough syrup at all to me, I don't even smell cherry in it. In the bottle: Has an off note to it that put me off trying it. Smelled sour. Wet: Smelled exactly like crushed blackberries. Exactly. After Drydown: Crushed blackberries in apple cider. Drunken while lying around on an indian summer day near a pile of sun-warmed wood. After a few hours: Scent is almost entirely gone. I did have a pretty bad allergic reaction to this one, but only on my inner elbow and one wrist. Strange.

Ditto. The first BPAL I have ever had to scrub off just because I couldn't stand the smell. Perhaps a message to not wear a love potion on a blind date I have high hopes for next week?

I opened my bottle last night. And my first reaction? "Oh crap. This is going to be my favorite BPAL ever and I'll never be able to get it again." I'm wearing it today. It's fabulous. Somewhat reminiscent of Blue Moon (another fave of mine) but less sweet and more crisp. I can't pick out any notes in it at all. It smells to me like sitting on the beach wearing some suntan lotion (but not coconutty lotion) and getting really really hot and then all of a sudden having a sunshower. So clearly some aquatic notes, but I can't pick anything else out. I ADORE this. To the point where I may have to get Beth to do a custom scent for me that is just an exact recreation of this. Only downside is that it's not the longest lasting fragrance. Given that I'm going to want to conserve this, having to reapply a lot is going to be a problem! ETA: I have bottle XXXIV!

Do you think that would help? I'd been assuming, for whatever reason, that I was allergic to the oils and that no matter what the concentration it would be a problem. I put Tarot: The World on last night. I loved the smell but my skin literally turned red the moment I applied the little wand-y thing. I'm kind of chicken about using it, and the others I have this reaction to, even with a carrier oil...

I would say that one out of every two oils that I try causes an immediate allergic reaction. My skin turns bright red on contact and burns and itches at the same time - it's painful enough that I have to wash it off and apply benadryl cream and take a benadryl all at once. I'll have to go through all of the ones that do this to me and see if I can come up with common notes, but I'm certain that one of them is cinnamon. I will probably wind up burning these in my oile burner or swapping them. It really bums me out that this is a problem because I have to do a patch test of every oil before I wear it. So I can't spontaneously decide to try something new before I go to work! ETA: I do NOT have sensitive skin. At least, I've only had this kind of reaction from one other product, ever (Lush's eye cream. But even that was OK on contact, it only became a problem when I woke up).