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A Corral for my Reviews . . .

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Fruitcake

Fruitcake is lovely. Boozy, fruity, nutty creaminess. It's quite delicious from start to finish with average duration and throw.   It smells quite a bit like a softer, sweeter version of Hellcat on me. I'd buy a bottle if I ran out of Hellcat.
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Fearful Pleasure

Damn. Within moments this leapt to the top of my apple favorites. Actually, it may end up near the top of all my favorites. It's a really beautiful apple cider. I get predominantly apple and cinnamon, but it's not candylike. A really lovely fall scent.
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Eos

This was a surprise hit for me. I normally can't do florals. Jasmine initially does it's overwhelming thing. But then there's a while of sweet, gorgeous honeysuckle. The best part for me is the drydown, which is a wonderful skin musk just barely tinged with floral.
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Eisheth Zenunim

This scent took awhile for me to grasp. It comes across as a fruity, juicy floral. It has excellent duration and throw. I've been wearing it without knowing what's in it and I can't say that I can identify any one note. I think the ambergris really makes things blend together.   Right after application DH says "What is that smell????" and not in a good way. Then he says it smells like really strong soap.   Several hours later, a co-worker tells me I smell like "old-school patchouli". I'm not sure that's a compliment.   And yet, I really like it. It's summery and fresh and it makes me happy. I think it will only improve with age, so this is a keeper and I'm glad I bought it.
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Eat Me

Initially this is delicious vanilla and sweet cake. The currant slowly emerges until at day's end there is a decided spiciness that is reminiscent of patchouli, woods and resins. Just glorious.
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Diary of a Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal

I am a foody whore that specializes in sweet. So DLTC is pure sticky sweet heaven to me. I think this maybe the sweetest blend I've ever tested and I just wallow in it like a fat, happy pig.   It isn't overly cloying though, because the ginger and citrus keeps things tangy. I so wish I had a bottle, my decant isn't going to last very long at all.
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Desire

sexy as hell. So, naturally I ordered a bottle.   Trouble is, the bottle doesn't really smell much like what I had in the imp. There is something really too sharply sour and nasty that just kind of overtakes everything.   I am going to try this later and hope for different chemistry. I suspect it needs to be aged to get that sharpness out and mellow into the smooth, rounded scent that it should be.   ETA: 5 months later and I pulled it out of the cellar and tried it. Things are much, much better. It's no longer sharp, but it hasn't yet reached it's full potential. I could and will wear it now, so I can watch the progress a bit more closely.
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Crib Girls

On my initial application, I got nothing. Zip, zada, nada. Like I'd just bought a 5ml of water.   My nose must've been on hiatus, because I tried it a couple of days later and now I'm suffused with lemon candy happiness. I'm fond of sweet, citrus, fruit scents and I do like the lab's honey - so I bought this unsniffed and I'm happy I did so. It's not a very complicated scent, just light, sweet and clean. I don't really get the sex scent of the more notorious honey blends. It reminds me quite a bit of Aelopile, which is darker and heavier, but still lemony. This is a more feminine, playful version of Aelopile.   I'm going to get good use out of this in the spring and summer and I'm curious to see how it ages. I might need a backup bottle!
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Couple Consulting an Enpon

Yep, cat pee. The older this bottle gets, the worse it is. I can wear it, and the cat pee dissipates, but it's not worth it. Blech.
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Coral Snake

I'm in love with this blend. If I concentrate, I can tell it is apples, but honestly it registers as midway between some lucious berry and a peach for me. Plus, it doesn't have the cloying quality of Snake Oil. I can slather this and still be in the same room with myself. Other people think of it as autumnal, but to me it seems like the ripest, juiciest laziest late summer afternoon ever. Sigh.   And, it's aging quite well. I think it's better now at 2 months old than it was fresh.   It makes me sad that the Snake Pit is going to slither off to oblivion. I really wish the Pit could become GC.
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Cockaigne

A rare instance of a milk note that does not sour on my skin. A deliciously foody scent that for some reason resembles Shub-Niggurath to my nose. I think the wine provides some shub-like warmth.   I love it.
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Chimera

Speaking as an unabashed foody whore, I have to say that Chimera is a fabulous example of the perfumer's art. In the imp it smells of wonderful fresh baked sweet pastries. On the skin it blooms into an even sweeter, faintly floral and very warm cinnamon extravaganza. To my nose, it is much more reminiscent of 'true' cinnamon than the stronger, darker, cassia cinnamon that is commonly referred to and sold as cinnamon (at least in the US).   Someone above compared it to the lovely, gingery Shub-Niggurath and I think that's a very apt comparison - they both have a similar sweet and soft tone. Actually, they may be the Yin & Yang of spicy foody scents. Shub has a decidedly cinnamon component to me, but ultimately I'd describe it as GINGER-dark chocolate-cinnamon, dark, sensual and slow Yin. Chimera is more like CINNAMON-vanilla-floral, bright, perky Yang.   I ask you, who the hell gives this much thought to perfume? Oh yeah, you do. Dear reader, I'm drunk on cinnamon, forgive me. Chimera, I love you man, I really, really love you. You know I love you, right??   Too often, cinnamon comes across as Cracker Barrel gift store candle ---> Tintagel , but this is really, really wearable as a perfume. It's by far the most cinnamony of the 20+ blends I've tried that contain cinnamon.   I applied it to my neck and was rewarded with stinging red welts. You might want to test on thicker skin, in your hair or in a locket, but you must try it.
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Casanova

I must second dirtytrip's review. I love lavender and bergamot and they really do this scent justice. I wore this to bed last night and I find it very invigorating. I had no problem waking up this am and it was still evident on my skin (I had slathered though).   I don't care for anise or patchouli and thankfully, I can't detect them at all. I also can't specifically detect amber or tonka, but I can tell that something is rounding out this scent I think the tonka is smoothing things out and the leather seems to really last on my skin. My first experience with BPAL's leather note and I think I need more.   Normally I end up with smoky/resinous scents and can't get along with florals, but here the citrus and lavender give me a much brighter scent to work with. It's definitely not girly, but I think I'll be able to wear this and i think it will be lovely for autumn, winter and spring.
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Boomslang (The Snake Pit)

I was so excited about Boomslang! I nearly ordered a bottle merely based on the description, but ended up buying an imp from a forumite.   Sadly, boomslang on me is not the wonderfulness that I expected (and that everyone else seems to enjoy). Upon hitting my skin, it immediately turns into a big ol' chocolate bandaid. It literally smells like some cheap scratch'n'sniff similacrum of chocolate. I could just . There is some nice stuff lurking in there, but I just can't get past the bandaids.   ----Waddles off to get a scent locket with fingers crossed.
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Black Pearl

First try with much anticipation because the description sounds so perfect and divine: how odd, this is so . . . salty, that's clever, like the ocean, but wait. . . the saltiness reminds me of something else. . . OMG it is PLAY-DOH!!!! This smells exactly like play-doh on my skin. It even reminds me of a time when I was 5 or 6 and my best friend got the play-doh barbershop and we played that thing to death. This is too strange.   Second try: I can't give up on this!!! Sadly, it is still play-doh. I get no lovely coconut or hazelnut. Maybe the faint hint of the iris. It's just salty play-doh. I am sad.
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Bathsheba

Bathsheba has been on my radar since my first BPAL order, I just always passed it by. It seemed too girly, too floral, too simple.   In fact, Bathsheba is simply elegant. This could almost pass for regular, commercial perfume, like a classic scent that's been around since the 1920's. It evokes the palest pink blush.   It's lovely and it's the first time I've been able to detect carnation in a blend and I like it very much. Florals don't do well on me, so this is a pleasant surprise. I suppose I had some preconceptions about carnation - something to do with high school dance corsages and green dyed St Paddy's day dreck. Despite their down market connotation, they are nice flowers   Sadly, it has practically no throw or duration on my skin so I reluctantly must put it aside.   Jewelbug's reference to Necco wafers is spot on. That's what I smell on my wrists an hour after application: Ghosts of Necco Wafers   Provided your skin does not consume it, this would be a good choice for those times when over the top BPALs aren't appropriate: job interviews, court dates, public executions . . .
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Asphodel

Smells exactly like easter lilies to me. Oh yes, and some kind of cleanser. A very familiar smell, but not terrifically compelling as a perfume for me.   Discontinued from Rappacini's Garden
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Antonio the Carny Talker

Antonio the Carny Talker - purchased a decant from a forumite and I think it is well aged.   Gorgeously fruity and yet dark. I normally have a bit of trouble with coconut smelling like suntan lotion - but here it is perfect. Also, the green components of vetiver and verbena are subtle - allowing the fruits to play center stage.   This is worthy of a bottle or three.
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Antique Lace

Yay to the lab for frimping this one!   Another one I would not have ordered on my own. Antique Lace is a very clean soft and sweet vanilla with just a hint of floral. I prefer it somewhat aged so that the vanilla smooths out a bit.
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Anactoria

When it was fresh, I did not like this. It had an unpleasant, sharply chemical smell. Now aged, it has mellowed into perfect soft musky amber.   It has average duration and throw. There's a brief, odd period where it smells like a terrific carmelized cotton candy, but mostly it is musk and amber with a bit o honey.   Mmmm. Nice. Surprisingly delicate.
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Aelopile

Aelopile smells like expensive furniture polish used for generations on priceless antiques --> exotic woods and lemon oil. It positively glows.   Good throw and duration. Morphs into a sweet woody resinous lemon lime with a slightly smoky base. Incredibly lovely and I wish my house smelled of this.   There is something different than the normal woods, ambers and citrus notes that I'm familiar with. This is, to my knowledge, my first encounter with oud. If it is the oud making this so great I think I need more.   Normally I amp cedar so much that it's unwearable on me, but in this blend it is restrained and lovely.   I will buy a bottle of this and happily wear it, but I think it would be a stunning room scent and most people would perceive it more as a room scent than as a perfume.   My rating: 5/5
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13: June 2008

This is my first 13 and it reminds me of Willy Wonka's experimental gum that tasted of all the courses of a complete meal in sequence.   Instead of experiencing the top notes that then give way to base notes, I keep getting discrete bits of them all in random rotation. A breath of honeysuckle, a puff of apple, a medicinal little waft of nutmeg and slathers of gorgeous dark melted chocolate. There is also a smoky woodiness that is very lovely and very autumnal. I was surprised to not see more wood in this blend.   Thirteen fades on me at mid-day, but I wouldn't mind reapplying this gorgeous scent. And I have a feeling I'm going to need more of this come autumn.
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