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BPAL Madness!

captainecchi

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Everything posted by captainecchi

  1. captainecchi

    Shub-Niggurath

    I was really excited to try this one, because I had heard from many excited people how great this was and how happy they were that it had become GC. Plus, I like foody smells, so I fully expected to love this one. Sadly, I found this a little lacking in depth. There's ginger, and.... yep, there's ginger. Maybe a very faint background of incense? I like ginger, but I didn't feel like this smell belonged on me. I like smells that keep me guessing; that always have another twist to offer, so this was disappointing in that regard. 3.5 out of 5. I'll use the imp, but I probably won't be buying a bottle. Husband likes it a lot more than me, though, so we'll see if it grows on me.
  2. captainecchi

    The Music of Erich Zahn

    The "you will smell like an Indian restaurant" appealed to me, as I like foody smells. When I put this on, I didn't remember what the notes were, and so I found it very hard to describe. It's pungent; spicy and incense-y (I'm guessing the ajowan, since it does indeed smell like Indian cooking), and a little musky (the musk, duh). There's a little something that burns at the back of my throat when I smell it. My husband tells me he smells ginger. I'm not getting the vetiver, or any floral notes from the mimosa. I feel like I can almost smell the tamarind, but it's blending superbly well with the ajowan. And the musk is definitely well behaved; no sweaty armpit here! This is kind of the dark scent I wanted Shub-Niggurath to be--a little foody, but still definitely a personal perfume. 4.5 out of 5--will definitely consider a bottle.
  3. captainecchi

    Finding BPAL blends similar to Dior perfumes....

    I felt that Shadow Witch Orchid reminded me quite a bit of Poison... but it has been many years since I last filched some from my mother's bottle.
  4. captainecchi

    Bloodlust

    Here I don't get the dragon's blood, even though that smell really came out and bit me in Wrath. Here, I get PATCHOULI, and, to a lesser extent, VETIVER, which are very dominant smells--I'll agree with the person that called this scent "aggressive." The cinnamon never came to the fore for me. I kept saying, "I smell like a headshop," and the people I was eating dinner with agreed--which is rare; people almost never comment on my perfume since I'm so moderate with it. I kind of like it, but I definitely did not get the vibe from this one I wanted (I was really hoping for the "I want to bite someone!" vibe that someone mentioned previously), so I'm not sure I'll be buying a bottle. 3 out of 5.
  5. captainecchi

    Wrath

    A scent aflame with rage, swirling in the red haze of hatred: dragon's blood spiked with black pepper, clove, and cinnamon. The overwhelming impression something floral, almost orchid-y--is that the dragon's blood? What IS dragon's blood?--plus cinnamon. The cinnamon is most evident in the first ten minutes; and it's not a mulled cider apple pie yummy cinnamon, it's a Big Red chewing gum kind of cinnamon, as someone else pointed out. That note dies down quite a bit, though, leaving that floral note. After a while, when I sniff my wrist, I can't really detect the pepper or cloves or cinnamon, but I do get the sharp bite at the back of my throat that tells me they're there. My big objection to this one is that the floral note acts a little weird on me... going a little sour but never quite becoming soapy. My husband liked this one more than me, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it a favorite scent. I'd give it, overall, a 2 out of 5.
  6. captainecchi

    Burial

    I'm wearing this scent today - it was a free imp from Tess with a recent swap. I see this frequently described here as "piney dirt." Well, I get the pine/juniper note, all right. "You smell like you've been..." my husband began, when I first put this on, and I hoped he would say something like, "working in the garden," but instead he finished it with "working with PineSol." Yeah. It does kind of give that vibe. I definitely don't get the patchouli in this one, thank goodness. Maybe a little vetiver? Maybe that's the earthiness? It does have kind of a smell reminiscent of freshly-turned sod, even if it doesn't exactly match it, and that note comes out more and more as the oil dries. It's refreshing, but at the same time, I can't shake that PINESOL feeling. I give it a 3 out of 5 - probably won't be buying a bottle, but I'll enjoy the rest of the imp.
  7. captainecchi

    Mata Hari

    This one started out on me as overwhelmingly rosy and floral. Smelling it in the bottle, I thought, "Yep, going to turn to soap on me," which florals, especially with jasmine, seem to do. For the first hour or so that I had it on, my skin was screaming ROSE ROSE ROSE. On the good side, it reminded me of a single-note rose perfume I once had which I loved; on the bad side, it was strong enough that I began to feel a headache coming on while driving to work. There may have been something about the jasmine that amplified the smell of the rose; dunno. Now it's an hour later, and the rose has settled down, and the vanilla is really coming out. There might be some other scents in there; maybe a little figginess, but they're hard to identify (I'm not sure I'd know what tonka smells like if it bit me). I like how the vanilla emerged not so much as a second smell but a mellowing of the rose scent--I didn't think those two scents would go together so well. Also, yay, no soap! Seems to have medium throw once it settles down (i.e. I can smell it consistently without sticking my nose to my wrist, but nobody's telling me I smell like roses/vanilla), and I'm betting the vanilla will give it staying power. This might be a floral I'd consider buying, maybe for spring use - it seems a little too flowery for a New England winter.
  8. captainecchi

    Hellcat

    This'll be my first time posting a review, but I loved this one so much I had to! A note: I try not to read the description before trying something on, so that I can form impressions of it without being influenced. Later on I look at the description to see how close I was, and then say to myself, "Yeah, I can smell that," or "that doesn't really come through for me." I got this one as a gift from a friend, so it's easy for me to forget just what scents make it up. In the imp: Strong! There was something acrid about it, and a scent that seemed familiar but I couldn't place. "Vanilla?" I asked my husband. "Cinnamon?" Neither of those was right on. On wet (wrists and neck): Ah, that's it. "Tobacco. Pipe tobacco. That's got to be it." "Rooibos tea," he suggested and I went YES. Rooibos tea. I realize the tobacco note I'm smelling is actually reminding me of when I was a kid, and my dad used to smoke this cherry-scented pipe tobacco. So it's more a sort of ashy, dry cherry smell I'm smelling. As it dried down, I went to check the description. I'm way off! Buttered rum? Okay, I can kind of see where that comes in.... Almonds, definitely, in that way that almonds and cherry kind of blend together for me. Every other scent seems to be hiding. I went to put more on, thinking "this may be a keeper..." Drydown: Rooibos tea, yep. Specifically, it reminds me of this rooibos tea winter punch mix I got, with apples and cinnamon and cardamom and almonds and all kinds of goodies in it. Putting my nose to my wrist, I get almost a patchouli smell, but what is wafting around me is sexy and warm and complex and DELICIOUSLY ME. The smoky, butteriness of it becomes almost musky on me, in a good way. Conclusion: almonds and cherries and rooibos tea and YUM. Will be buying a bottle.
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