Gin

Very dusty at first, Dragon's Bone dries down into a lovely smoky-wood scent. The sandalwood is delicious. It verges on being overly salty for a moment, then goes back to being dry wood with a hint of orris. This is lovely. Not sure it's "me," but lovely nonetheless.

This is white and pale blue--white lilies against a pale blue-grey sky. Very pure and comforting.

Smells like carnations and nutmeg with something slightly herbal... lavender, maybe? And lemon? As it dries, it goes mostly clovey on me with maybe a hint of leather. I think this would make a good room scent.

Lemon! All I get is lemon that smells like Lemonheads. But I love that smell, so it's great! Smelling June Gloom makes me think of summer--particularly the days when the sky is very grey, right before a summer storm when the humidity is through the roof and there's that sense that *something* is about to happen.

Val Sans Retour

Lemon and pine. The lemon is subtle and sweet, the pine is more like the sap from a fresh-cut tree. This is quite lovely, and not at all like a household cleanser smell (as some lemons and pines are). Sadly, it disappears *so* quickly!

Tintagel is spicy and sweet with a green edge. The greeness of the fades into a spicy cinnamon. It's very festive! I just wish that my skin didn't intensify the cinnamon so much.

Oh, wow. I had dismissed this as being overly heathery. I'm glad I gave it a second chance. This time: blackberries! This is so gorgeous. It's fruity, but not really, which makes no sense but it's true. It makes me think of blackberry bushes rather than just the fruit--the dark berries and the dark green leaves with the paler, sage-green undersides. This is beautiful. I bet it'll make a fabulous room scent, too.

I'm having a difficulttime describing this, as I can't really pick out any individual notes. Cairo smells warm. A little lemony, a little resiny. Brings to mind baklava and golden raisins. Very nice, but subtle.

On me, this is cinnamonny, with a hint of sweetness underneath, but not much more. Pretty much straight-up cinnamon.

The bergamot is sharp, and the lily lends a bananalike note (as it sometimes does on my skin). Luckily the sandalwood takes charge and reigns in the bergamot and the lily has pretty well disappeared. This is a nice alernative to rose-sandalwood blends.

Oh sweet lilac! Yay! It reminds me of something from my childhood... like a lilac scratch-n-sniff sticker or something. This is a very pretty, unusual floral. I wish I hadn't waited so long to try it!

This is light and floral in the vial, not at all what I expected, reading the description. On the skin, the orchid emerges over a lighter, sharper floral. This is almost purely orchid on me--no myrrh, no black currant, no cypress. I like black orchid quite a bit, so I'm not disappointed, just a little surprised.

Very floral out of the bottle, SWoB goes slightly cinnamony on my skin. Oh, and there's gardenias too. And maybe lilies. The jasmine that was so loud at first has gone away. And now, it seems that I've spent so much time trying to decipher the flowers that it's changed again. I'm back to a cinnamony, spicy, almost buttery-vanilla. And almond!? Wow. I was all set up to dislike this, and it's done a complete 540° on me. Yay!

Since I recently discovered my love for black currant, I'm quite excited about this. Fresh out of the vial, I smell the black currant, but also the heavy myrrh. Wow, this is really sweet. It also has a kind of cola-ish edge to it, like the syrup before the carbonated water is added. I like this a lot!

Lemons and herbs. But wait, the herbs are retreating. Now, I'm left with a warm lemony scent... and that's all. I like lemon scents well enough, but I guess I expected more from this.

Grapefruit jumps out of the vial, with just a hint of the spicy ginger in the background. The tea and apple blossom fade in, making this even more lovely. It's fresh and makes me think of drinking tea in an garden, surrounded by flowering trees. The apple blossom really shines in this blend! Gorgeous!

All of the notes are very apparent in this blend--the rose, the amber, the musk. It's a very balanced, grounding blend. It reminds me of how the spa smells, very soothing and relaxing. Nice.

I must be having a dodgy nose day because I can hardly smell this at all. I get a sweet rose and a bit of sandalwood. This is a nice, quiet floral, but it doesn't stand out among the other fabulous BPAL floral blends.

Hunger is sweet and very sexy on me on a good day--a spicy incensey scent and vanilla. On a bad day, the orange blossom is overpowering and sour. If it were more consistently good on me, I'd definitely get a bigger bottle, but as it is, I'll stick with my imp and hope for the best.

Figgy and fruity, this is a warm scent. It makes me think of spiced fruit. Yum!

This isn't pine exactly, but it but it feels like pine to my nose. This is very masculine, very sharp. Dry, I can't pick out any individual notes except a faint bit of pine. This is not for me at all.

Cherries and chocolate. This is so sweet it almost makes my teeth ache. Then chocolate takes a backseat and lets orange blossom take the wheel while cherry rides shotgun. I know better than to let orange blossom drive--she always takes me to the sour part of town, so I searched for some Bliss to layer on top of it. By the time I found the Bliss, though, orange blossom has calmed down and Vice has developed a delightful creamy scent, like chocolate-covered vanilla buttercreams. I think this would be a keeper, if not for the orange blossom.

Oh dear. It smells like burnt rubber in the vial. On my skin, I smell the nutmeg, which I usually like, but in this blend it's so medicinal. But when it's dry, it's quite nice! A bit like rootbeer, it's spicy and warm.

Pretty! I thought this was a little sharp in the vial, but it goes sweeter when it hits the skin. Threre's still a green edge, but the sweetness of the orchids float above it.

I smell the lily and rosewood first, but as it dries, the frankincense comes out. This is a lovely, subtle blend. I like the addition of the lily to the spicy-rose combination.