theGreatMissJJ

Wow, I got Severin a while ago and I could have sworn I reviewed him, but I guess not. I got him as a frimp in conjunction with Wanda (was that intentional, Beth? ). In the imp: Light...crisp...refreshing...and not at all what I expected. I smell the bergamot in the Earl Grey straight off. I'm waiting for that sweet, animalistic, musky, buttery leather note from De Sade to make its appearance but it hasn't yet. Wet on skin: The "crispness" of the tea mellows out somewhat, but this scent is predominantly a very light citrus. I still can't get any of that leather. Dry on skin: Severin is surprisingly wussy. Well, perhaps it shouldn't be so shocking considers he's named after a male submissive. Every once in a while I catch a whiff of that buttery raw goodness that is leather, but otherwise, he's all tea. I'm getting images of an effeminate man fanning himself with a citrus scented calfskin glove alternating with the image of a late summer afternoon wearing a sundress and drinking iced tea. Throw and wearlength: Medium throw, average wearlength. Not something I could ever imagine a man wearing. Even though I am absolutely a dominant female, this isn't quite something I would find appealing, either to wear or on someone else.

The perfected winter rose, dew covered and freshly cut. As with many of my limited edition purchases, I bought Rose Red 2007 and Snow White 2007 on a last-minute OMGITWILLBEGONE, despite the fact that I'm perfectly content with wearing Alice as my signature scent. That being said, I think I just found one of my favourite rose scents EVER. I feel that the poor rose is maligned, being dubbed either old-womanish or cloying, but that's probably because none of the naysayers have ever sniffed Rose Red. I'm fortunate in that rose is note that literally sings on my skin and this is no exception. In the bottle: It smells like stumbling into a damp winter wild rose hedge, with moist loam and tart green stems poking through the snow. Interspersed with all that green is this absolutely gorgeous, luscious, and robust red rose petal scent that envelops you with all its lush beauty. It smells like a fairy tale, honestly. Wet on skin: The greenness comes to the fore. Rose Red is tangy, a little saucy, and a little tart, but beneath that mischievous little bite, she's sweet and beautiful. Wow. There's practically a palpable shimmer of rosy beauty that just wafts off my skin. Dry on skin: It changes little except for the fact that the green tangy-tartness recedes. This is a slightly more mature Rose Red than her wet stage, but still youthful and innocent. Throw and wearlength: Long. LOOOOOOOOOOONG. But rose scents tend to stick to me, so it could be my particular skin chemistry. The throw is also pretty intense. Rose Red 2007 reminds me of a tarter, more wintry counterpart to Libra 2007's juicy late summer ripeness. Both are possibly my favourite rose scents Beth has ever made. EVER.

Another frimp from paperbacknovel! I had actually been wanting to try Eos for a long time; it's like she read my mind! In the imp: I took a quick whiff of this one when I met up with my writing group The Kitchen Girls at the Union Square Barnes & Noble last night and my first impression was, "Whoa, Johnson & Johnson's baby lotion!" It's not a bad smell. I'm assuming it must be the skin musk because it does actually smell like glowing baby skin. I'm sort of surprised I'm not getting any florals. Wet on skin: My skin loves those florals. It's still predominantly skin musk, although it's almost buttery, which I'm guessing is the buttercup. Sweet flowers and I can smell the pale yellow honeysuckle and white jasmine. Drydown: Although it now smells nothing like Johnson & Johnson's baby lotion, there's something about it that really does remind me of baby skin. The way the top of my brother's head used to smell when he was an infant. The florals are still lingering around me in a beautiful warm early summer morning mist sort of way. Throw and wearlength: Both are medium, although the skin musk clings to me long after the flowers are gone. Lovely! I may have to buy a big bottle of this later.

I purchased this from paperbacknovel because, despite the fact that I am not a Libra, the notes seemed like they would be divine. Alice is my signature scent and the rose, carnation, and honey combination on her work great with my skin. I do fruits fairly well as well. In the bottle: Light and beautiful, like laying on your back on a grassy knoll blooming with flowers on a sunny day with the scent of ripening fruit from the orchard being carried past you by the breeze. I'm not kidding, that's what it smells like in the bottle; I'm not waxing poetic here. Rose seems to be the prominent note here. Wet on skin: Cherry. I think. Possibly plum. It's very subtle as rose is still the top note. It's sweet, but not sugar-sweet or baker's-confection-sweet. The rose is almost juicy. Dry: Still sweet, but it's a softer honeyed rose. It's warmed up slightly by the carnation and maybe the fig. It's less juicy-red and more golden. Libra 2007 is like a little girl with her lips stained dark red with cherry and plum and current juice under liquid sunshine. (Where the hell are these images coming from? Maybe I'm still a little drunk from drinking at McSorley's last night.) Throw and wearlength: Throw is medium although stronger than I expected, given how "light" and "airy" this blend comes across. Wearlength is medium as well. Given how many notes Libra 2007 has in common with Alice (rose, honey, and carnation), they smell nothing alike on me. Alice is very creamy (Libra does lack the milk) and spicy honeyed carnation is the top note on her. Libra is very rosy, which surprised me. Alice smells "younger." I guess scent-wise, Libra's like her grown-up and classy sister. Beautiful.

I'm a little apprehensive as I do violet and white musk quite well, but lavender is never a good sign. I'm not too sure about vetiver as I haven't really tried too many blends with it. Here goes nothing. In the imp: Predominantly woody, of which I suspect vetiver is the culprit. Woods are all right, as long as they're not too strong because they can sometimes have an acrid aftertaste. Wet on skin: Ugh, here comes the lavender. The result is a sharp scent that isn't exactly unpleasant but certainly not something I would ever wear. Dry: Oh, you flirtatious violet. It was supposedly the perfume of Napoleon's wife Josephine because violet shortcircuits the olfactory triggers in your nose so that you're "scent-blind" to it. After a while you can smell it again before it does its disappearing act. It's the ultimate tease when it comes to floral perfumes. Between the bursts of flowers, I can detect a light musk but unfortunately it's being undercut by the disgusting lavender and the sharp vetiver. Throw and wearlength: Throw is stronger than I would like, but that may be because I just want the lavender to go away. Wearlength is fairly short however, thank goodness. I can actually imagine a man pulling this off better than a woman. It's not awful, but definitely something I wouldn't be trying again.

In the imp: Strongly aquatic, with a hint of saltiness that's very reminiscent of the ocean. I like aquatics, although not as a scent to wear. I like things around me to smell aquatic however. Wet on skin: It's sweet and somewhat floral/green, possibly the algae or the seaweed. It's not too different from the initial sniff in the imp. Dry on skin: Dry, the brine comes forward more with a slight "tangy" tinge that may or may not be the crushed coral? (Reading other reviews of this scent, it appears to be grapefruit, and it does smell somewhat "fruity" but it's not listed as a note.) It reminds me of Selkie, but insofar as it's in the aquatic family. As far as that scent family goes, I still prefer Selkie for its soft and gorgeous feminine touches. However, the Deep Ones smells like the Atlantic Ocean on the English coast, which is rather amazing. Throw and wearlength: Like most of the other BPAL aquatics the throw and wearlength are medium.

In the imp: Rather less minty than I had expected based on the description, which is a good thing as I'm not a big mint fan. I can't get anything distinct from the vial other than a vague clean, fresh scent. Slightly ozone-y at once, slightly aquatic at another. Wet on skin: It softens up to this...green smell that I'm guessing must be the mosses. Dry: I have no idea what ambergris smells like but I can't really smell anything from this blend but a clean watery smell. Throw and wearlength: Weak throw and nonexistent wearlength. However, I can see this being a nice ambient room scent burned in an oil burner.

Another one who received this as an extremely generous frimp from the Lab. Oh, Beth & Co. I love you!!!! In the imp: Citrusy. I smell the grapefruit and neroli straight off, with a white floral-ness that I suspect is the jasmine. Beautiful. It's light and rather summery. Wet on skin: More florals come peeking through. I can now distinctly smell the wisteria and iris. Oh, this is absolutely lovely. Beneath the top citrus-floral impression I think I can smell the honeysuckle and tonka, which lends a sweetness to this blend. It doesn't really smell as "vanilla-y" as I thought it would based on the tonka, but I don't mind; I'm a florals type of girl anyway. Dry on skin: Mmmm, ginger and green tea. Oh Beth, your artistry never fails to astound me. The citrusy notes have faded and linger wistfully in the air and what's left is a beautiful sweet white jasmine, made slightly bitter from the green tea and with just the teensiest bite from the ginger. White and cool: just what I imagine a vampire to smell like. Throw and wearlength: This doesn't have much throw to it, but I suspect it's because of the "lighter" notes that comprise most of it. Wearlength is medium-ish, but perhaps a bit on the shorter side. This is a scent my mother would LOVE, but the name would probably throw her off. "What? Vampire tears? Haven't I squashed your inner goth YET?" Damn, do I have enough money for a bottle? Why must you break my bank account, BPAL?

I love the way pumpkin smells and I was crossing my fingers that this wouldn't be the disaster that was Jack. I picked Pumpkin II because it had no other "foody" notes like vanilla. In the bottle: Sweet and floral-ish. I'm not smelling pumpkin yet. I think I smell tobacco first. I opened this with Bear in the room and he said that all it smelled like "spices, but no pumpkin." I think he's picking the carnation note first, possibly also the champa flower. Wet on skin: It immediately warms up and now I can smell the pumpkin and tonka, which is blending with the carnation to create this lovely rounded, warm, spiced pumpkin scent. Here's hoping that bizarre foody accord doesn't make itself known... Dry: A SUCCESS!!!! I have found THE PERFECT autumn scent for me! It doesn't smell too different on me dry than it does wet, but man does it work well with my chemistry. I barely dabbed it on and immediately I exude scent for the next 12 hours (Bear woke up the next morning and said, "Mmmm, you still smell like pumpkin."). Throw and wearlength: Fairly strong on me and the wearlength is very very long.

Aureus actually smells like campfires to me. It's so intensely woody and dry, it practically bursts into flame.

When you say "sweet, creamy floral" I immediately think of MY signature scent on BPAL, which is Alice. The notes are carnation, rose, bergamot, milk, and honey. The rose gives it a lovely floral heart while the milk and honey make it creamy and sweet. The bergamot makes it citrus-y while the carnation gives it a slight spicy kick. ::snuggles Alice::

Whoa. Whoa. So this is what resin smells like. In the imp: Somewhat incensey. Wet: Sharp and resiny. It smells like a wood chest. Not unplesant, but not something I like. Dry: Okay this smells like a campfire. But instead of burning woodfire, I get this sort of camphorus resiny smell. Throw is quite large. I don't really like this. Off it goes!

Another one from the imps gifted to me by dawndie! She sent me a few for Bear to try, but of course I had to pre-empt him and try them myself first. My inital review was slightly biased, my nostrils having been tainted and assaulted by my little brother's Axe body deodorant spray. (I. Hate. That. Shit. He smells like a forty-five year old man in a bar trying to pick me up. He's eleven; he should have the clean "boy" smell, not "smarmy lech.") However, having cleared it out the room, I will commence. In the imp: Quite floral. I guess that's the juniper. It does remind me a bit of the Juniper Breezes body spray that Bath and Body Works used to have. I never considered it a masculine floral though and this for the most part smells very girly. Wet: Hmmm, my nose is getting muddled, but this keeps disappearing on me. Golden Priapus...then skin. Golden Priapus...then skin. Drydown: All right, Golden Priapus stopped its little foreplay and is getting down and dirty. I can definitely see how this is masculine; dry it started smelling like pine woods with juniper berries crushed underfoot. There's a hint of golden sunshine there, and some sweetness that I guess is the vanilla. YES. A VANILLA THAT DOESN'T SMELL "FOODY." (See my review of O.) Throw is medium. I'm curious as to how this will smell on Bear. It might be quite nice.

A dizzying eddy of four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony. I received this (and many, many others) as a gift from the awesome dawndie. I had initially smelled this before in a bottle of my roommate's and I remember I didn't like it much then. However, I have noticed that most scents in the bottle tend to make my nose crinkle with distaste, so application is really the only way I can truly review a scent. Anyway... In the imp: Light, crisp, vaguely floral (I'm guessing that's the peony). Lovely and light. Wet: Although I'm a floral amper, this one stays mostly tea on me on inital application. Drydown: Ah, there's the floral. This is a lovely "green" scent, but it's a light lemony-green, the colour of just-about-to-ripen lemons. The peony gives it a little bit of sweetness to the dry tea scent. Throw is fairly light. I quite like this, although it has none of the usual notes I reach for. This may in fact be better suited to my mother than me. (I raised my wrist to have her smell Alice and she went, "Ugh, too sweet for summer.") I may gift her with The Dormouse and Kumiho.

I got this as a generous gift from my lovely foster-parent dawndie! I'd been wanting to try Eve for a while because all the notes (except for that pesky ylang-ylang) sound fabulous, especially the rose and honey. In the imp: Uh-oh...ylang-ylang. Not so strong, but it's smells quite similar to Suspiro. Wet: Phew, the ylang-ylang fades under the beautifully tart and fresh apple blossom. I'd never smelled apple blossom before but it's quite lovely. Innocent (just the way I like to smell). The rose is playing hide-and-seek with me, but the honey is sweetening things up quite nicely. Drydown: Sweet, pure, fresh...this is everything I love in a scent. If I bury my nose in my wrist, I can smell the rose in there. I can still smell the ylang-ylang, but it's definitely not too strong. Throw is rather light. It's fine for me, although it is a touch lighter than some. All in all, quite beautiful and thanks again to my BPAL mommy!