Black Cat

The autumn fragrances are REALLY calling to me (one reason I'm so excited to get more of Haunted Hallows--I'm enjoying it this summer, obviously, but I think it will really come into its own when the weather gets a little cooler and leaves start to fall). The package that is winging its way towards me has Miss Luna's Autumn and Phantom's Breath and Wicked--I'm dying to try all of them! Any other fall recommendations?

Yes, thanks, Halo, that's very helpful. I had not initially thought of cocoa butter as a chocolately scent, until I think I read some reviews where some folks experienced the note that way. I don't want to muddy the waters, so since I myself don't have that experience (at least not yet!), I won't drag that association into my own reviews! I'm still learning the whole scent vocabulary and it's great to have so much help. Thanks for seconding the Nookie Cookie recommendation, Miss Darlyncherie! And StacyK, I was already eyeing LP Gold and wondering if it would work for me; your comment makes me think it needs to go on the list as well... They will have to wait for the September order, though, because my August sale package is already ON ITS WAY! (jumps for joy)

Hi Fleur! I'm very much a newcomer to the boards myself, but I just wanted to say welcome. I, too, felt I was "not good" at describing fragrances, but people here were very encouraging, and I've posted my first couple of reviews and people were very kind. So I just wanted to encourage you to jump on in. (Plus, it's pretty clear from what you've written here that you are quite skilled at talking about what works for you, and what doesn't, and why!) I look forward to reading about everything that's in your huge order. My big package is on the way too! What fun we're all going to have! Oh, and Coconut Breeze has been without a doubt one of my all time favorites. I'll be eager to hear what you think!

That's one I looked at long and hard and eventually passed on because so far, chocolate has not worked on me. What's the chocolate factor in that one? Every other ingredient made me think, oh yes please! I guess it's a little odd that cocoa butter is one of my favorite notes, and I don't get chocolate at all with Coconut Breeze-- I think I read that few people did. But so far anything listed as chocolate or fudge has been a bit of a disappointment. Thanks so much for the suggestion, by the way! I really appreciate it when people make connections with other scents to lead me to new possibilities.

Yes, I am trying to build my faith in that! I think because this one was SO evocative for me I feel a special attachment--but I have been around just long enough to start to believe that the Magical Potion Master will find plenty of other ways to bring back all the best parts of childhood for me! And of course there all sorts of OTHER things I like to have evoked, too!

So glad to share the love! I felt a little guilty buying so much but I consoled myself in the knowledge that I left plenty for y'all to hop on and grab some!

I really have loved my sample of this--because the weather is starting to turn here, I'll probably be saving the bottles I just ordered for next summer, because this is the essence of summer to me! I echo what others have said about the sense memory trigger effect--this feels like summer in the 70s, before cell phones and internet and all that stuff. This is spending the days roaming the neighborhood with a gang of kids, with no adult knowing or caring where you are as long as you come home for dinner. Or biking into town to get a pile of library books, and lying on the cot on the screen porch reading, with a giant glass of Kool-Aid in hand. Or-especially!-- long days out at the lake, riding home tired and exhausted and wet, with windows rolled down because our car didn't have air conditioning, listening to FM radio (I swear, the first time I smelled Coconut Breeze, I heard "Afternoon Delight" playing in the background!). I can't pick out individual notes. It is Pure Coconut goodness to me, and it absolutely brings to mind the suntan lotion my mom used back in the day. It's funny--I initially thought, when I got this, "Oh, good, a non-slutty scent I can wear to work." Except I realized after one try that was a terrible mistake. This signals to my brain that we are in long, lazy, endless afternoon mode. Not conducive to work at all! Sheer delight, and I am already panicking about not having an endless supply.

OK, now that I have secured my hoard of bottles on this, I will say: current runaway favorite! I ordered this with some other samples, and when I sniffed it in the vial I didn't get really get anything except some overwhelming flowery-ness. I set it aside and kind of forgot about it, until I saw Mara list it as one of her favorites. So I broke the sample out the other night, and fell in love. When I put it on, I didn't really get the lilies at all--instead, it was a wonderfully earthy, damp essence. It really smelled like wet graveyard dirt--or like the IDEA of wet graveyard dirt (I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, so I kind of have graveyards on the mind!). I live in New England and it reminds me of the way dirt smells when you walk far into cool woods on a bright hot day, and stop by a fallen tree trunk that's rotting quietly into the earth. For the first several hours, this was its own unique thing. I love patchouli, but other than the earthy quality of the scent, it didn't smell like patchouli to me. I kept smelling my arm all evening and it made me feel darkly happy. Then, it settled into a gorgeous lily scent. I often find lily scents in perfume cloying, too sweet and too perfect. This had the smell of fresh flowers with moist black dirt still clinging to the stems. (Again the dirt! Apparently I love it!) And the next night, when I put on the tank top I wear to bed, I was overwhelmed with a fresh wave of beautiful lily scent. So all the little goth girl parts of me (embarrassing to have so many at my advanced age!) are jumping for joy over this one. So glad I will have a sizeable stash, including enough to give some away!

Thanks for the tip, NuTrix! I have a couple I'm setting aside to try again to see if this might be, um, a cyclical problem.... stupid hormones! Nice to have an interim solution... Thank goodness there's SO MUCH scrummilicious-ness to choose from!

I ordered this as part of my quest to find THE definitive honey scent for me. Phero Girl was one of my very first purchases, and while I liked it a lot, it wasn't my all time favorite. I confess, I only included Sugared Honeycomb because I was trying a whole array, and I didn't expect this to be the one (I was really thinking OCCO SLF would be the winner, based on its description). I opened the vial and put a little of this on and thought, "YES!! This is the one!" Apparently when I want honey.... I want HONEY. Just honey. This was sweet, but not cloying. It has a slight edge--not spicy, exactly, but something that says, there's a lot going on here (maybe that's the combo of different honeys giving it texture?). I have loved this as a going-to-bed scent--it makes clean sheets and a soft cool breeze coming through the window feel like the height of sensuous luxury. I also found it was great for going out to a social event that was making me feel anxious and uncertain--this gave me some confidence, as well as being a mood-booster. It didn't feel over-the-top sexy for a public setting. So yeah, full bottle for sure!

I received this as a free sample, and I'm so glad. It's one of those I wouldn't have thought to sample on my own because I was convinced that marshmallow would not work for me--it's neither a scent nor a flavor I'm drawn to (I thought!). I spotted this thread, and read the reviews, and and decided to break out the sample last night. Wow! In the vial it's very heavy on the marshmallow, and smelled almost too sugary sweet for me to want to put it on, but I remembered the reviews. As soon as it hit my skin, it mellowed (sorry! could not resist) and sharpened--I think that must be the anise? I didn't smell licorice, but instead of over-the-top s'mores marshmallow, I got quiet, almost resin-y marshmallow. The overall effect was both delicious and somehow less foodie. This felt like it had true aromatherapy benefits--I kept smelling my arm all evening while reading in bed, and it lightened my mood (after a fairly stormy week) and made me feel both sparkly and calm. I'll definitely be ordering a full bottle of this one! Oh, and I've been having a bit of an issue the last few weeks with my skin drinking scents--there are things I loved but after a few minutes they would just disappear. Not this one! It stayed strong and present all evening and there were still remnants in the morning.

I just caught sight of that the other day! Oh, dear, my credit card is going to take a whuppin' this month! Thanks for the suggestion! Do you really need a reason to be a juicy hot and sticky rockstar? Sounds totally reasonable to me!

Oh, thank you all, for the welcome and the helpful advice! I got a few things back in 2011 but then I got distracted (you know how that goes!) and so I've been back for a couple of months now, and I've been trying to make a rule of always getting samples first (LP Red, Sexology and Phero Girl were the three I still had and was using through my hiatus). I've been getting lots of samples in the last few months. Sneaky Clean has been this summer's discovery for making my retail job WAY more fun. That and Unseelie were my first two full bottle purchases this time around. I've been saving the Unseelie for the fall; I adore it, but it doesn't feel like a warm weather scent to me. My latest round of samples had several prizes in it, and I was just about to place a big order when I saw the sale notice, so I am champing at the bit on those! I love Coconut Breeze and hope to get a full bottle in time to wear for the last bits of summer. I also tried several vials in hopes of finding my perfect honey scent, and I think Sugared Honeycomb is the winner so far (though I've yet to try Occo or NoCo Gold). I also want to get Love Potion Black for the cooler weather ahead. And my most surprising new love is Strange and Unusual! I confess, I bought it entirely for the name and the description, not expecting to fall head over heels in love with the scent, but I just can't get enough of it. Who knew maple was the magical ingredient I didn't understand I was missing! So those are all ones I'll have to get on the review threads about, with some actual details about WHY I love them so much. But that's the starting list. If it leads anyone to think there are others I must have, please do tell... Tyvey, thanks so much for the suggestions! I'll go take a look! And LadyVictoria, that was the best and most useful example I can imagine for writing a good review! As far as a PE--I think I need a few more rounds of experimenting with the phenomenal list of available combos to start to learn to pick out individual notes well enough to feel brave enough for that. But at least one will have to involve black cats for sure, if not necessarily baby vampire ones.

Hello, all, I've been lurking around the boards for a few months now (although apparently I joined the forum back in 2011 when I made my first LP purchases--didn't realize until I plugged in my go to user name and was told it was taken, tried a password and lo and behold! here I already was!). I'd love to start doing reviews, but have felt shy about plunging in without introducing myself. That being said, if anyone has any suggestions/guidelines for doing reviews (including things it's good to avoid!), I'd love to hear them. I am very much an enthusiastic amateur when it comes to scents--I am blown away by the level of expertise and sensitivity in the reviews here. But I love the variety of ways in which people describe their favorites (and the really useful information about why certain things don't work for certain people) and I'd like to join in. I really appreciate the moderators' guidelines about "quality content" and want to make sure that's what I provide! Plus, I may need a second job to finance all the LP purchases I want to be making, so those member credits really called to me! After a fair amount of trial and error (thank you, LP, for sample vials!) I am starting to figure out which kinds of scents work for me, and which (no matter how intriguing the description--I absolutely ADORE the descriptions, and generally want to buy everything!), probably won't. Some of these are things I've been drawn to all my life--the dark resin-y musky stuff--and some are a surprise. I am getting seriously addicted to foodie scents, which I never would have expected! Anyway. Looking forward to participating a bit more (and seriously excited to get ready for doing my own Private Edition!).