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All frosty aldehydes—the kind used in sport colognes like Polo Sport, and more recently and intensely in CdG’s Odeur 10–and a little bit of sprightly sage. Great staying power and moderate throw, an easy breezy chilly scent. Yes, it goes cologne-y. That is part of the charm here! If you are looking for a cold, soapy, (now) classic masculine profile, with a little cheery herbal twist, this is definitely for you. It is very simple and enjoyable. With simple scents like this it’s hard for me to know whether I will continue to simply enjoy them or get bored—time will tell!
- Today
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Something in this isn't playing nice on my skin. The coconut smells flat and kind of dusty, and it almost reads as soapy but not quite. I'm blaming coconut, it doesn't always work for me. I'm jealous of what the other people smell!
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Frankincense Smoke goes on strong, but no stronger than to be expected when experiencing it in its most highly concentrated form. It very quickly mellows out into something much gentler, an absolutely lovely, incensey scent, perfect for winter. It's mostly a soft incense, but it's warmed by a lovely fatty, sweetish beeswax. I can pick out the frankincense too, doing its beautiful, slightly citrusy thing. Overall it gives a very gentle, comforting impression; I was a little worried this scent would end up much too heavy based on the description, but I'm happy to report it isn't at all, it's just what I was hoping it would be, soft and incensey but not overpowering, and I can pick out all the individual notes. Later on in the day I started noticing it's a little woody too, so that might be the cedar peeking through. It is in fact so gentle that I put on A View from the Window just now, only to find that my perfume is totally overpowering my hair gloss! Oops. I'm brand-new to exploring hair glosses, and I don't have a good sense of what pairs well with what quite yet. I'm going to try pairing Frankincense Smoke with On Time next, which is very very light scent, and I think will make for a gorgeous combination.
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Bottle sniff was milk and honey and gourmand. On skin it’s very bubbly like a carbonated drink. I see what Bpal is doing though, it very much reminds me of their Peach Milk, Sugared Peach Milk, and Rose Milk all of which have a fuzzy-carbonated feel to them. So if you loved those you’ll might love this one as well! It’s not something I see myself reaching for so off to the swap pile.
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i wonder if i got the same oil as everybody else! while i love bruised violet compound it doesnt stick on me as a dark and sultry smell. i smell a bright and wet flower thats earthy not in a dirty way but a refreshing, alive way. on the outskirts of it i still get the wet imp smell which to me is a very sweet purple candy like those fizzy grape soda candies that come in little cans at the arcade. the slight wet greeness is more alike to a stem or leaf than moss and enjoyable even to me who usually doesnt like a green smell. i get no red currant but thats at no detriment to the blend imo. very sweet wet living violets!
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I got this last year when it came out but for some reason forgot to review it! I'm happy to do so now as I've just broken this out again in anticipation of this year's Luper drop! I'll start by saying I've actually never tried the original Red Rider, as I'm not much of a leather fan owing to the fact that leather notes, except under extremely rare occasion, tend to amp so intensely with my chemistry that it blocks out whatever else might be happening with the scent in question. That said, I blind-bottled this because so many of the other notes were deeply compelling and I am especially find of the Lab's gorgeously tangy / creamy ruby chocolate note! I don't recall what this smelled like fresh, but in classic BPAL fashion, this scent has aged beautifully. I don't get leather at all, at any point- at least not directly. It's possible it's there in the background, but if so, it's doing some deep undercover work. I get a big-throated melange of the red musk, red mosses and balsam for the first solid hour or hour and a half. During that time it's consistent from first sniff all the way through dry down. As I get deeper into the second hour, the red berries come into the mix and the other notes start to mellow considerably. For the long haul, there's a medium-low throw where that tart-creamy ruby chocolate is like the Sun, and the other notes are the planets orbiting around, sometimes more in the mix, sometimes less. Knowing myself, I probably didn't think much of this scent when I first tested it, because I remembered precious little about that experience. But past VioletChaos knew enough to hang on to the bottle to retest later and today VioletChaos sure is pleased about the sagacity of that decision!
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This perfume develops differently on my skin both indoors and outdoors. Indoors i get a green honeyed tea, I'd say the green variety but very restrained and dainty. Outdoors, it's more vibrant, well blended and multifaceted, and i get the hay, the sweetened tobacco/ tea melange, and also something akin to suede, although it's not listed. It's airy and vividly aromatic and sweet in a refined way. Nothing about screams manure or saddle leather or whatever olfactive associations you may attribute to horses.
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Beaver Moon: Green Tea & Cookie Dough
bellumed replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
First? Oh, boy! The bottle scent makes me think of fancy ice cream, which I suppose makes sense. I don't think I've ever had a green tea ice cream, but I have had an Earl Grey one (shout-out to Van Leeuwen), and that's what this reminds me of - bittersweet in a balanced way, not strongly one or the other. On skin, I get more of the scent of raw cookie dough, still with the tea leaves keeping it from going sugar-sweet. No chocolate chips here, just the dough. If you are foodie-curious but find them excessively sugary or just generally prefer a subtle scent that is only slightly sweet, I highly recommend this! -
I received this as a frimp from @artisjok who must have very thoughtfully looked at my GC wishlist! Thank you! I adore bpal's skin musk note, and that is indeed what this is - sensual, slightly sweet, subtly fruity (apricot or melon?), gently floral, doing beautiful things in alchemy with my skin chemistry. I love having this, and it immediately made me better understand the skin musk note in all the other scents where it shows up. I think this will be a great one to wear on its own at times when I want to wear something clean and subtle, or of course for layering. My partner has immediately gotten into layering it, especially with duets, and we are now running through our imp rapidly! We'll be getting a bottle of it.
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2025 version My skin tend to amp sweet scents and fruits. This is an apple perfume with patchouli and a little smoke. I don't get any fir needle. The apple has been cooked in some spices. Like an apple tart. It fades away after about five hours and leaves a similar patchouli base to other patchouli perfumes they do. It's nice but not that impressive compared to other patchouli perfumes I have from bpal. I will probably not buy it again but I will buy other apple scents in the future.
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This one is mostly about the dragon's blood (an incense-y variety, not a spicy floral one!), musk, and pom on me, with a dash of clove, and surprisingly, very little tobacco or patch. The dragon's blood is the dominant note at first, but the musk gains strength over time and eventually becomes the dominant note on me. I get great longevity and throw from this. Layered with the Clove and Sweet Incense duet, it really amps up the clove and incense aspects, and the duet reigns throughout wear, backed by the main notes of the moon. I don't need a bottle of this one, but I'll probably hang onto my decant.
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Blood Moon: Clove and Sweet Incense
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I finally reached near the bottom of my to-test decant pile, which means it was time to finally get around to testing this. I was putting it off because I kept feeling like it smelled farm-y in the bottle. And yeah. There's clove as the star of the show, backed by a slightly funky incense note. Eventually, the funk goes away, and the clove calms down, so that it is mostly incense backed with a bit of clove. I still don't love that dose of farm I got, though. 😅 Layered with its moon, I mostly got incense and clove sans farminess, though, backed by dragon's blood, musk, and pomegranate. - Yesterday
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When David Bowie and Bing Crosby sang The Little Drummer Boy in The Year of Our Lord 1977 AD, it brought together two classic voices in a brief, but glorious, intersection. So, you can imagine that when I saw two beloved BPAL classics combining forces in a single scent for a limited time only, a mental parallel was drawn. I had to know, would it be just as magical? Opening the bottle, the photorealistic Rose Red rose we all love is there, strong, vibrant. The green stems are there, too, but there is something a bit...off. I kept sniffing, and those frost bright petals and winter air smell a little rancid. I closed the cap, put the bottle down for a few hours, then picked it up and brought it into another room with less "smell pollution". No difference. Gah! I eyed the label suspiciously, looking for a hint of what may have gone wrong. Of course, there was no visual clue. I drank some water, took a deep breath, and put it on skin. Today was not our day for redemption. That same decay I smelled in the bottle came along for the ride, and despite rose riding hard in the front of the pack, there was a fetidity that was too legit to quit. As the rose faded and the Snow White elements took over it got a bit better, but it never smelled GOOD. I scrubbed it off after two hours with no regrets. All things being subjective, this pairing was confusingly disappointing to me. I love the individual scents deeply as solo artists, but neither my nose nor my skin could reconcile them as a duet.
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This is such a lovely, golden scent--I put it on and it felt like springtime! Super photorealistic clover honey, and definitely CLOVER honey, not orange blossom. I'm a little amazed at the specificity. I'm not sure how to articulate the difference between clover and orange blossom honey if you haven't tasted both, except that clover feels a little darker, more ambery and more nuanced. "Darker" might not quite be the right word here, because I wouldn't describe If Bears Were Bees as "dark" AT ALL. It is so deeply golden and very, very bright. I swear there's something lemony and marmalade-like that's also quite prominent in this, a jammy sort of lemon-rind. I can't remember the last time I smelled mead, quite frankly, so I suppose that could be the mead for all I know. The last BPAL mead note I've tried was quite fruity, so maybe it is that! I'm definitely not getting anything fizzy though. Not getting anything smoky, exactly, but there's this almost caramelized, burnt-sugar edge to the honey as well, so I'm wondering if that's what the woodsmoke is doing with the honey on my skin. Hard to describe what the pollen is doing--it's absolutely adding a soft lightness (not powdery at all though), and a very very faint flowery touch. The total effect is really just lovely! I just got in from digging out my car from the most snow my area has seen in 10+ years, and it feels wonderful to feel like I'm basking in my own personal little bubble of golden springtime everywhere I go as I'm cozying back up inside. There are SO many BPAL bottles I've been meaning to buy, so I'm not sure if I can quite justify buying a bottle of this one as well, but I am wishing I had a bit more than a half-decant! I suppose I'll see how I feel about this come spring, if I decide I really must have more. (I know reviews are not strictly the place for this, but if you're looking to destash a half-bottle or partial of If Bears Were Bees, do please feel free to DM!) Haven't tried it yet, but am very curious to layer this one with Lines Written by a Bear of Very Little Brain. Will report back here if I do!
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This one needed at least a month to calm down, straight from the mail it was quite sharp and biting. But now when it's rested it's much softer and lovely. Yup, there's clove but it's not dominating at all on me. Pomegranate is very evident now but it really needed that rest. I get a lot of dragons blood (I always get when there's some), clove, musk and patchouli and the pomegranate is giving juiciness and sweetness to the whole. This is dark, resin-y pom scent with some spice. This is going to age beautifully.
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I have been going through my collection of frimps and I have found what I suspect is the 2018 version. I was looking for something else to test and on a whim grabbed this in my handful. I suspect I might have hid this one from myself, lavender is one of my very favorite notes, and as this has been a very limited drop, I bet I was trying to avoid heartbreak. And heartbreak it is! This is soft and gentle and layered. Close to the nose I get a subtle sweetness, but the sage and lavender fall in subtlety sweetened clouds around me. Warm and cozy. Absolutely the vibe I have been needing recently.
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Unequivocally my favorite scent from The Prophet series so far. BPAL's hay notes are like catnip to my nose-brain; as soon as I opened the bottle and took my first deep inhale, I knew we had a winner. A touch of frankincense and a dab of cedar are there too, but this is all sweet hay (sweeter than, but similar to, the hay absolute in Judgmental Longhorn) in the initial whiff. Once on skin, the amber arrives, along with a background track of light beeswax such as you would find as remnants in a candle stick, as opposed to an actively melting, pooling liquid. The hearthsmoke is restrained, giving a slightly dry tone, and the frankincense is simply beautiful. Low projection, but 7 full hours of detectable wear. A work safe, blind buy safe, gorgeous skin scent type fragrance that could easily become a daily wear for me if I didn't have a bit of a testing backlog to get through first. I loved every minute I had it on and will be recommending this to everyone!
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Melted Jolly Rancher in the wet open on skin, sticky and saccharine. The currant is just tart enough to not make the sweetness completely overwhelming as it dries down. It's over an hour before the patchouli becomes detectable, helping to ground and balance the scent as a whole. As the fruity intensity abates, there is a really nice jammy quality that starts to emerge. The patchouli is mostly what remains at 3 hours in. Moderate sillage and around 6 hours of wear all in. Fans of the BPAL pomegranate note will probably really enjoy this one, as it feels like the fruits here are all cousins. Something about it reads more fall to me, but really it's appropriate in any cooler weather day; summer heat and humidity would likely amp it into overdrive. This is another one of several Yule 2025 scents that I expect will age like fine wine.
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In the bottle, an astringent tea, a murky lavender, and a bit of that watery rain note stand out. On skin, the top notes burn off in about 10 minutes, leaving the iris and lilac standing there awkwardly looking at each other. Like Donkey's Tail, the musk moves in quickly, sitting here next to the muted, aquatic rainy moss. Very soft sillage, and only about 4-5 hours of noticeable wear. I'm usually pretty well aligned with the BPAL Hive Mind on popular scents, but like Donkey's Tail this doesn't do it for me at all. I very much get sad, musty old lady vibes here, despite generally liking iris, lilac and lavender as notes in other Lab offerings. My search for an offering in The Hundred-Acre Wood collection that hits continues!
- Last week
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YES. I feel so fortunate that this scent returned for the 2025 Yules collection, because I had never tried it before, and she's an absolute stunner. I have to think anyone who was lucky enough to get this in the initial release carefully guards their precious stash and never lets it go! The sweet, oaty incense in the bottle is intoxicating, and it only gets better on skin. Although I know it's a pseudogourmand, it doesn't give "edible"; instead, I'm in a Portland, ME bar on a cold snowy day, sitting with a gaggle of girlfriends having a catch up over a late brunch next to a fireplace. The one sitting next to me smells like a combo of incense and a bowl of lightly honeyed oatmeal, comforting and a bit seductive at the same time. She's a little older, much better traveled, and has an impeccable sense of chic Euro-bohemian fashion. I secretly wonder if she is the illegitimate offspring of a Roma traveller and a Bavarian duke, because she moves so easily in any company she keeps. On top of being supremely cool, she never gatekeeps the amazing things she has come across in life, and when I mention how nice she smells she reaches into her vintage velvet patchwork satchel and hands me a bottle, telling me to keep it. Every time I open it and put some on I feel like a little bit of the magic she has collected in her adventures briefly casts a spell on me. My only very minor complaint is that this fades faster on me than I would prefer, peaking around 45 minutes in and quickly falling off a sillage cliff from there. By the fourth hour post dry down, it's largely gone. I'm infatuated with this, and need at least 2 more backup bottles (and, pretty please, a lotion, hair gloss, and atmosphere spray as well 🙏🏼🤞🏼💛).
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Got this as a free decant from a lovely decanter here on the forums and I love it so much. Soft and sparkly patchouli, frosty aldehydes. Not much vanilla for me. Really hope this one gets brought back some day !
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This is a surprisingly gentle scents in spite of the punchy notes--it's a supple, soft, smooth brown leather with some glowing warmth from the rum and tobacco, and a touch of airy cleanness from the soap and wool. The clean notes do not overtake the scent at all. Neither does the grass, which just provides a nice greenness in the background. I swear that I can smell some fragrant, warm hay in the sun, but maybe it's in my imagination. A beautiful blend!
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This is a gloomy atmospheric that's also very pretty. The rain and earth are realistic and loamy, gentle and not sharp or too clean. I swear that the white musk is coconut-kissed--it's very pretty. The steel keeps this interesting and unisex. I love scents that paint a scene for me, and this one is evocative, interesting, and highly wearable.
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That first deep sniff is all brown musk and spice, with a touch of sweet dark molasses lurking below. Applied to skin, cinnamon, clove and a bit of sugar surge to the forefront and dominate for the first 25 minutes, right about when the patchouli starts to make its first appearance. The booze note here is powerful and present, but the brown musk itself stays quiet until around an hour in when the spices start to burn off a bit. I am not getting as much of the molasses note on skin as I did from the bottle, but I expect it will emerge more as it deepens with time in storage. Medium to strong sillage (a bit potent for small workspaces and places), lasting just under 7 hours before fading away. Not blind buy safe if you are sensitive to cinnamon in particular, but otherwise very enjoyable to wear now, and likely to get even better as the spices mellow out with time. Perfect transition scent from pumpkin spices in Fall to gingerbread spices in Winter! I suspect that people who may not be paying close attention will sleep on this vs Gingerbread Snek, but I think it has standalone merit and will end up being a cult favorite.
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VERY strong butterscotch rum wet in the bottle, cloying and synthetic. Coming in hard behind that is an oily hazelnut with just a touch of astringency from the white oak. First impression is overwhelming, and I am not optimistic. On skin, even with an electron sized dab, the butterscotch rum screams and the hazelnut wails. There is no subtlety here; the scent swells and expands with time, becoming more potent. I got 6 hours of nuclear wear, 2 hours of modest wear, and 4 more hours of faint wear, even though I considered scrubbing it off several times along the way. There is a cream note lurking in here somewhere that I've not really liked in other BPAL scents, and I'm getting hardcore Yankee Candle vibes from the butterscotch rum. Overall impression is that this is too potent and artificial smelling to be enjoyable for me. I will keep it to see if it smooths out as it ages, but can't imagine wearing it again anytime soon.
