hipslike___cinderella

Very very salty, and rosy. That's the initial waft. This smells very "vintage"... that word just sticks. It's like something I'd find in my grandmother's drawer (I mean that in the best possible way; I am not phobic of "grandma" scents!). Once applied, it's a streaming bouquet of whiteness...white roses and a touch of salty wetness, but not half as salty as in the bottle alone. Given a few minutes, I can catch whisps of incense (almost unmistakably frankincense) from my wrists. The incense doesn't stay around long (poo) and neither does the salty aquatic, and I'm left with solemn, elegant, clean white rose and flowers. I'm not sure what calamus smells like alone, but for some reason, I could NOT stop comparing Penthus with Queen of Hearts- minus the cherry and lily. And, er, I guess no rose either. Perhaps that doesn't make sense, but they both give me a distinct, regal, lady-like feel. I like. Although I'd only wear it when I felt the need to put my head high in the air.

Poor Old Scratch... he smelled so good in the bottle. Herbal, deep, warm, earthy, gender-neutral, and CREAMY. Really a "red" blend; lavender touches, but really a base of rosewood and amber. Background of patchouli. My skin tends to EXPLODE amber all over the place, and that's exactally what happened. The rosewood was there for 5 minutes, and was interesting, and the patchouli (which really struck me as red patchouli) had a fighting chance, but no. What could have been good fell flat on me and turned into practically a single-note amber. Don't get me wrong, I like "amber + pretty co-notes", but not "AMBER". In the very very end, all that was left was a hint of amber and a poof! of powder. Boo.

Melopeme is one of the most unique blends I've tried in a while, and the most memory-provoking. Initially, it's green and herbal, and sort of "wet" smelling. Cypress and lavender are the most prevalent to me, but there is a hint of sweet florals. The mint must be blended so intricately that I wouldn't know it was there without a description. After testing on my skin, this goes through some stages, somewhat rapidly. First it's strong cypress, green and foresty, and it's tough to pick out the notes; like everything came together. Shortly after it sweetened up quite a bit and become very feminine; very soapy and familiar. (Much later, after compulsive huffing and deep thinking, I realized what it reminded me of- the pink liquid hand soap from the dispensers at the AMC theater that was by my house, that I frequented constantly in middle school!! Okay, really weird, and it sounds like a total turnoff, but that's EXACTALLY what it reminded me of, and it gave me a cozy feeling. And yes, it smells pleasant.) It stays soapy and floral till the end, all the while fading pretty fast. I wish this blend wore longer... it's really interesting, and I usually don't like soapy florals, but I need more testing to ground a better opinion of it.

This is SMACKPOW lily at the initial whiff. I love lily, but you have to deal with the first sour-floral stage. It softens up rather quickly, and you get the powdery resins. I smell the rose absolute only after the lily softens up a bit. About 20 minutes later, this is BEAUTIFUL. Middle body of resins, all so blended well that I can't pick apart labdanum/olibanum/frankincense/myrrh, and even the rose plays together well. While I do smell "flower", "rose", and "resin", it's still impossible to pin this down as a "floral", "rosy", or "incencesy" oil (does that make sense?). It's all blended just right, and is what it is. Very mature and lovely. My only qualm is that it faded so fast.

For whatever reason, I had a hard time reviewing Florence, but I'll do my best. In the imp vial it's rather floral. I'm not sure what iris smells like alone, but it's very pretty. Someone earlier compared it to the iris in Blood Pearl, and I can see the similarity. The "berries" are hard to distinguish to me, and instead of naming any, I can say it's one big, swollen, juciy scent; warm and red. The amber provides the base here. This gets much better on my skin. It becomes earthy and sexual- and I swear, swear, SWEAR I smell patchouli! Really! I let it sit on my wrist forever to see if it was just my nose tricking me, and I kept re-reading the description, but I swear I smell a distinct earthiness that's patchouli (and I'm not one to smell something "dirty" and scream "patchouli!" right away; I love patchouli and can pick out a billion subtleties). The end result is musky, sexy berries and amber. I'm guessing there's some spice falling under the "velvety spices" category that I don't even know the name of that must be giving the "earth" feel. I like this blend for what it's for, and rose above what I expected (I read "berries" and groaned), but it's still not my kinda thing.

This scent sure is barren. At first, before it's on my skin, it's difficult to understand that there are so many components to this blend because as soon as I pull off the cap to my imp, emptiness pours out. It's a scent devoid of color and devoid of temperature. Only on my skin can I name any notes: a definite patchouli and vetiver base, white flowers, a hint of lavender and just a tiny touch of lime. This continues on lightly, the white musk, patchouli, sandalwood, and lavender all playing gently. I find this blend to be very feminine. A notable blend as far as craft, although I would have no interest in this if it weren't for the backdrop of patchouli/vetiver.

I opened up this imp and oooo! Refreshing, minty lavender! Very astringent, very cologne-like. It's barely hard to tell in this stage if there's any musk. But the minute I try in on my boyfriend's arm- oh hey there black musk! This is... sexy! I'm a huge fan of lavender intertwining with dark notes (hello, Gaueko) and this does not fail. The black musk swells into a heavily herbaceous, camphorous scent (I'm assuming it's the pennyroyal that smells "minty"; it's not IDENTICAL to mint, but I have no other words to describe it). At the middle stages, this has an undertone of moldy cellar... er, I mean that in the best way possible. Like a musty basement with shelved lined with home-grown herbs. I like that. I'll admit, my mind seemed to pass over "black musk" with the description, and with "lavender-citron cologne", I expected something crisper and more citrus-like (yeah, I didn't read reviews either). I'm more than happy with this, and glad to add more proof to my theory that black musk is the deliciously best note on my boyfriend

Reading all these reviews, I feel bad. Poor Black Annis gets a hell of a bad rap. This was fascinating and I think, pleasant... and it's a scent I could only review in steps. I picked this out because I thought it would be thick, scary, and animalistic. Initially I was right about the animal part, but to my surprise I found this oil to be alluring, and dare I say, nearly delicious. In the imp, it was a creamy vetiver, anise, and green notes (must be the oak leaf and lichen). So I tested this on my skin. Mmmm... smooth musk attraction, anise (aka, black licorice. It's similar, but I hate saying it because they aren't entirely the same, and I think it's not fair to compare anise with a sugary confectionary), vetviter... I wait to see where this takes me. 10 minutes later... JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO INTO THE WOODS! The anise is no longer creamy, but sharp, black, and twisted. This tickles my nose and it's as though the anise and vetiver are in a shouting match on my skin. This is the scary waft I was looking for. Later on, I'm surprised by the arc of this. An hour or so after application, it has come full-circle back to the creamy, musty, anise and vetiver. The fight is over. The note that I think is lichen is more prevalent in the end, leaving a warm, and again, VERY animalistic, musky green fragrance that is subdued, pensive, and sluggish. I have to say "fragrance" because this is the most unexpected perfume ever, and at the same time completely natural smelling. This tells a story; the approach, the attack, the afterglow after the kill, all from one oil. I don't know if the general populis would take a liking to smelling this off of me, but damn, I love it. I can only guess that many people don't like Black Annis because many people don't like the notes themselves. Civet, anise, and vetiver are notes that don't necessarily have a big following. I say, don't let this one scare you; if you can handle those notes alone, this is all worth the try.

This was a gorgeous sea mystery from start to finish. From the reviews I could tell I would love it, yet I still wasn't prepared for this to be the very EPITOME of "ocean" scents. This is like a perfect, sophisticated version of what every generic perfume company is trying to do with such things as "ocean breeze", etc... it even smells expensive. It's impossible to pick out separate notes from the bottle, and in fact, reading the note description and then sniffing, I just think, "how does Beth do that?". Furthermore, this oil provides a gushy, happy feelings for me, because it reminds me of one of my grandmothers; when I was little, she always had her huge bathroom ornately decorated to the brim with everything ocean- seashells, seasponges, seahorses; and she always had dishes of lavish blue soaps and fragrant room sprays, all with that familiar "oceany" smell. This scent captures all of that. If she were alive today, I would ship her a lifetime supply of Thalassa. So alright, I will try to describe Thalassa already. This is cool; not a warm, bright sunny day at the beach, but rather late spring, 60 degrees out in the early morning, with a soft breeze rolling off the tide. As I think others have said before, not blue, but a blue-green. I am not an almond fan by any stretch, and I held my breath as it wore on my skin, but nothing ever changed; it was an upholding, strong tidal wave of beauty... goo, sorry, I'm getting all emotional and poetic over a perfume oil. Anyways, I am tragically logical, so I tried my very hardest to "find" the notes... at best, the jasmine seems to warm and peek into foreground, but without every getting floral; I suspect it's the frankincense and benzoin giving it body (I must stress, this was me trying REALLY hard to pick apart the notes). This is a full-bodied blend, carries well, and with a good throw. My, dear. So there you have it; I tend to either love aquatics of despise them, and this is at the top of my aqua list. I need to invest in many bottles before the carnival leaves town!

Oh jeez... let me preface this by saying what I was looking for in Mikatonic University: Dust. That ancient, tickle-you-nose dust note, like the one hiding in The Parliament of Monsters; and a heaping cup of rich coffee and cream. Something gentlemanly and upstanding. Here's what I got: BOOM!OHMYGODBUTTERYPOPCORNSOAKEDINIRISHCREAM. This is THE STRONGEST bpal blend, out of the bottle, I have ever sniffed. It made every olfactory thread in my body stand on end, and almost induced a headache immediately. I couldn't believe it. I swore it off, separating it from all my imps until the day my boyfriend sneakily dabbed it on (I picked it out for him, after all). I directed him to stay away from me, but eventually gave a sniff, for scientific purposes. This one sniff, conducted about 30 minutes after application proved no different than the first: BUTTERED POPCORN, strong coffee and a vat of IRISH CREAM. No dust, no polished oak. This, to my nose, is a food-phobe's NIGHTMARE. Sorry for the caps and the negativeness, but I hate BPAL blends so seldom, and I can't believe how bad this is to me!

I am writing this review in regards to sniffing off of my boyfriend... but I'm beginning to think I have s special thing for black musk, and might steal this one for myself. Black musk bases this blend, with middle notes of balsam, orange blossom, and tobacco, and delicious top swirls of clove and mint. With my boyfriend's chemistry, it's an equal, musky muddle of black musk and orange blossom; the clove rings wonderfully in the beginning, drops to the background, and is only hinted at in the fade-out stages. In my opinion, this is both sexual and gender neutral. In the end, orange blossom reigns supreme, but it is dark and murky... an evil orange blossom, if you will. This is lovely, although I'm sad to see the cloves and spices evaporate. I ought to try this one on myself, as my boyfriend's skin simply EATS UP oils right away; plus, I can't help thinking of this as a spicy and slightly flirtatious cousin of Minotaur... and that makes me very happy.

First of all, I want to say this is one of the most "visual" blends I've tried, and the beautiful label is perfect; when I smell this, I feel that light sky beige color. Mysterious florals, proper and regal women, feelings of luxury. Right off, from the bottle this is ginger and citrus. A surprise punch of citrus. On my skin, this melds into a bright, warm floral. Light, white exotic flowers and sweet, woodsy pale sandalwood. The biting crispness of the citrus I initially smelled in the bottle gave way to the spicy ginger and just meshed. I picture dipping the tip of a paintbrush in bright orange watercolor (ie, the citrus) and touching it to a pool of water on off-white paper and watching it just stream and blend. Perhaps odd and detailed, I know, but that's exactly what comes to mind. All in all, this is very elegant, womanly, and defined. Not feminine; womanly. Tamamo-No-Mae holds up a long time and pretty much stays true. Hours later it is still detectable, as a slightly astringent "perfumey" perfume. While this isn't something totally up my alley, I still appreciate this as an artistic and beautiful blend.

Straight from the bottle, and for the first 10 minutes on my skin, Rose Moon is all roses. Especially tea rose, which has a 50/50 chance of turning into burning hair on my skin. Luckily, Bulgar rose seems to balance this out, plus the lemon peel keeps this crisp and fresh. Instead of being an oil in which you pick out the notes right away, Rose Moon sort of shimmers in stages on me. Violet leaf begins to peak out first, and then a whiff of jasmine here, a dollop of honey there. It continues to gently morph, and after an hour or so, I'm left with a warm smear of rose, opium, and honey, which smells almost natural and very close to my skin. I like this last stage the best, yet it's incredibly light. I really appreciate all rose blends, and this is no exception; a lovely breath of nature that is perfect for springtime on the cusp of summer.

Oh, Minotaur... you are everything I had worried hoped you would be! I can basically only concur with what everyone has said... this IS a resin lover's deeeee-light. Powerful, strong, masculine- but still entirely wearable. This is the kind of nostalgic, incense-quality scent that sends my heart aflutter, like Gaueko. Someone described this as "ancient", and I think that's perfect. However! I DID get the poof!powder problem when I excitedly tried it on my skin immediately from arrival. I'll admit, I jumped the gun on a review instead of testing a few more times because I want people to get an idea while it's still available. Worry not; this isn't a game-over baby powder ending, but a soft, warming powder. Still strong, still resinous. I believe this will age finely... and let me say, it is MARVELOUS in a scent locket. I am coveting this and buying mutliples bottles before it disappears :::longing sigh:::

Oh goodness... this is loooooovely. A smoldering, red, steamy, warm and sexy scent. Probably the sexiest BPAL oil I have whiffed yet. Glowing, red roses (not green at all, or sweet, but big plump ones) equally mingled with amber, and then glazed with musk. I'd say the amber and musk is most prevalent, and the rose is there, but not screaming as in many other blends. Either way, I love roses and this one is just so sensual. This strikes me as a seductive "hey boy, come get me if you dare" type of scent. My boyfriend was even bowled over by me wearing this one and it totally gave me a sense of womanly power ... right to the top of my must-have list!

Just from the imp, this is dirt. Dirt. Dirt. Something floral is hiding, something sweet, not heavy like Zombi. Gorgeousness blooms after this is on my skin... Some unnameable flowers... something rooty? Ruddy and awfully nostalgic, I get a clear and distinct memory from this. When I was very little my grandparents owned a lake house in the Lake of the Ozarks, in Missouri. This smells like a warm, earthy summer night, more specifically, the damp and muddy logs used to set off the grass from the sandy dirt. The log wall was as tall as I, and this smells like being close to the wood, inspecting for little bugs and rolly-pollies. Yeah, you can picture me sitting on my couch, sniffing my wrist and swooning over my childhood. It stays at this state for a long time, and eventually winds down to veviter (!). Yes, and I love vetiver too! This is such a winner. Unlike some dirt blends, this is completely wearable. I need a bottle.

Sweet, golden incense. A twist of citrus. Juicy and spicy, this is mouth-watering. After compulsively sniffing my wrist and wondering, I realized what this reminds me of: there is an Indian market across from my apartment, and they sell spicy candied mandarin peels. This is EXACTALLY what it smells like. After some wear, the spiciness fades to mostly orange and lemon. This is interesting, but not my thing really.

Definitely orange pulp and orris in the beginning. Strawberry leaf and violet leaf come though, and then a hint of rose otto. This is very springy, floral, and feminine. Reminds me of expensive beauty soap. The two notes I most looked forward to, frankincense and honey cakes, never showed on me! I ended up passing this onto my mother, who absolutely loved it and called it "bottled spring".

For being a flower in Hades, this is so light and pretty. In the bottle, the oil is so light it's barely sniffable. Once applied, a white flower pops out, and then gently begins subduing. This truly is a ghastly flower, whispy and sweet. I feel apprehension when I smell this... maybe I'm just imagining it, but it smells creepy. I imagine a tattered white dress in someone's attic, full of mystery. Silly, maybe, but white/grey scents always spring imagery on me. All in all, this is light, simple, pretty, and haunting. Reminds me of Darkness minus the opium. I like it and will use my imp, but it's almost too barely-there for me to want a bottle.

Good lord, this is deep, sexy, warm and robust. I agree with someone a couple of spots ahead of me... this is a classic patchouli-lovers DREAM. Perfect, thick, green patchouli, and a sidekick of juniper. I can see how this is being called supremely masculine; the juniper adds a classy, dapper feel, and yes, it's kinda like a good cologne. But I'm a lover of masculine scents, in general and on myself, and this is no exception. As this wears on, sadly I had a hard time placing any honey or beeswax (and I was really looking forward to it). I waited forever. BUT, this blend gets even more gorgeous over time in another direction; whatever East African musk is, IT IS LOVELY. My skin swells into this cloud of sexy, musky pathcouli. This is A+. I'm a little uneasy over having only one lonely bottle of this, but I will covet it for sure.

Fresh, clean, pink, and very girly. Somehow nostalgic of my pre-teen years... even though I can't remember owning a pink-smelling perfume. The carnation adds just enough spice to keep it from getting sickly-sweet. This is simple, happy, and perfectly balanced. I think I chose wisely for my first Lunacy blend!

Freebie from the lab. Mmm! I like this. Moss, flowers, herbs. I picture blue colored flowers... yes, definately a blue/green scent. Twilit garden, indeed. Once it's on my skin... oh Lord, JUMPING florals. This must definitely be jasmine. Maybe a magnolia? The mossy notes recede into a trace. This flowers are sweet and sour. I can note the incense... myrrh? Overall, this ends up as strong florals; a pretty floral, but probably only for those who LOVE florals. I wish the moss and incense notes stuck around longer. Take it or leave it, to me.

I got this as a frimp, and I was so excited because it was on my Must Try list. I ended up being slightly disappointed. It smelled very yummy in the vial... vanilla. Vanilla. Vanilla. I couldn't wait to try it on and catch whiffs of the dried flowers and linens. Er... it never happened. I waited steadily, and I've tried it twice... but it was nothing but vanilla, all the time (and vanilla isn't actually listed as a note). It's not that I don't like vanilla, I do. It just reminds me of being 12 again and being obsessed with all things Vanilla Bean by Bath & Body Works. It is a sophisticated vanilla, but just slightly boring. Meep! Sorry guys!

Oooo. Evocative and strange, this is. All at once, in the oil, I can smell stone, clay, and water. It's rather masculine, although there's hints of flowers. This is so very cold... although not "decaying", but very clean. On my skin... WOAH! Ivory soap! Strong! D'oh. I don't like this stage, but I wait patiently. It's worth it... very very slowly, the incense and flowers draw out while remaining chilly. I can see a freezing clay building, housing strange exotic flowers. I can't decide about this one. The Ivory soap stage is totally unpleasant, yet something keeps drawing me back. Definately sets a mood. Hhhhm. (For what it's worth, since it was so masculine I tried it on my boyfriend and I just cried "YECK!" and dismissed it as strong, strong Ivory soap. It smells better on me. )

Kanishta is light and sweet, when I was expecting something a little deeper. Opium and jasmine are really the dominating scent to me... and I absolutely swear I smell orange blossom, although it could just be the other florals. It becomes a little smoky with a little wear, but overall doesn't morph much. This reminds me of Vixen without the ginger note. It's sexy and happy, not dark. This could be an everyday scent for me. I'm glad I bought a 5ml unsniffed, but it's not a multiple bottle purchase and I won't cry when I use it up.