marared

I gave this a shot because so many people are raving about it, and it's ... okay? Not bad? Not really my thing.

It's extremely fruity and juicy at first sniff in the bottle - reminds me of a spicier Jovial Embrace. It's quite loud. I was worried about the tobacco, since BPAL's tobacco frequently is unappealingly gasoline-sweet to my nose, and I can smell it in the blend, but it mostly behaves itself.

On my skin, it's HELLO RED/BURGUNDY MUSK. This was the other reason I was skeptical, because I amp red musk like crazy, About ten minutes in I can smell the smoke and the rose, but the opoponax, patch, and vanilla are nowhere to be found. Juicy fruity red musk is about the extent of it on me!

This imp is probably about 15-17 years old, and the oil is deep orange. Right off the bat, I get a clean and soapy floral that is probably frankincense, and I thought for a while that was rose, but now I think is some other heady flower (not jasmine, honeysuckle, or gardenia, but from there I don't know). I can't detect any of the dragon's blood that everyone else smelled. After letting it sit for 10-15 minutes, I start to smell a sweet woody note underneath it all - might be oakmoss. I'm not a fan of the soapy start, but it mellows out pretty nicely.

For the first few minutes, it's mostly dark soil with leather. The vetiver and tobacco aren't noticeable to me in this, but the tonka is just barely there. The soil fades about 75% after a little while, and it smooths out to a gentle dirty leather scent with low throw.

ETA that it's also very long-lasting - 16 hours later I can still smell leather.

I like orange blossom but it doesn't always like me. Fortunately, this doesn't go sour, but it's also not very strong. Like Mahogany & Incense Smoke, this starts out pretty sweet, but it mellows with time and leaves a slight honey funk. I would have liked a stronger citrus note in this - I have to sniff pretty deeply to pick up the orange under the blossom. It's pretty, but it just doesn't have a lot of zing or personality.

I had to let this sit for a couple months because it was so gacky and high-pitched. It's calmed down a little, and now it smells like honey-sweetened cereal at first. After 20-30 seconds, the mahogany asserts itself, and yes, that is definitely *smoke* wrapped around it. It gets darker and sharper, and the honey fades more and more, as time passes, until it just leaves a slight funk on the mahogany and smoke. It definitely gets more interesting with time and not something you want to judge on immediate application!

Beautiful - delicate and mildly sweet, not strongly fruity. The rice milk makes Peach Vulva smell kinda like peach yogurt, and it has kind of the same effect here, but the rice is more detectable. Mango rice yogurt? I think this will be fantastic for layering with other gentle scents.

Cozy tea sweater. So glad I grabbed this one.

If you aren't sure about vetiver, this is a great one to try, because it's barely there - it's a supporting note, a warm smoothness under the tonka and the tea. No smoke, no stank, just delicious.

Straight out of the mailbox, this is bitter and woody, with an underpinning of something kinda piney, kinda medicinal. I double checked what blue cypress smells like, and the second descriptive word is medicinal! This is like an aromatic bitter that you'd put in your cocktail, or a funky alcoholic botanical that you'd find in Eastern Europe. The vetiver is smooth, not scorched or vegetal, but it is definitely second fiddle to the cypress in this blend. Definitely very bitey, and I am not sure if this is something that will calm down with time.

"Floriental" is a good word for this one. I bought it to support the cause, because I'm not usually a fan of flowerbomb scents, but I've been surprised by stranger blends, so I gave it a try.

It is a BLAST of stanky jasmine right out of the bottle and a little terrifying, to be honest. But if you can survive the first minute of HOLY COW JASMINE, it suddenly morphs into something else entirely. The jasmine is still there, but it takes a backseat to honeyed carnation. Even the red musk, normally a note that I amp to high heaven, is way down there in the mix. The leather & sandalwood are a supporting base that keeps the flowers from running amok, and the final result is very classy, a very adult woman who's got her sh*t (and probably everyone else's) under control.

Queen of the Honeyed Heart is a sister scent that's pinker and sweeter, but that same Fabulous Woman In Control kind of floral.

When I first opened the box, I had just arrived home from work, so I dabbed a tiny bit from the cap on my hand without checking the notes, and bustled about my evening chores. It smelled gently masculine - wood-based cologne with a slight floral touch. It was the kind of masculine that's probably straight but not afraid to wear pink or a feather boa.

Sat down after ten minutes and dabbed a little more on the same spot, and suddenly it's not even the same scent. It's a lot of dry oakmoss, and less almond that THANKFULLY doesn't (or hasn't yet) turned into that cherry-adjacent gack that I hate. I can't smell the rosemary, and rosemary is usually kinda pungent - there's no herby tang to this at all. Nor can I smell the jasmine - A' Rovin has that immediately identifiable slighly indolic zing, but not here. It's just a slight breath of floral that gentles the oakmoss a bit.

I am gonna come back to this one in 6-8 months and see if the almond calms down, because it's a little too sharp right now.

2015 version.

It took FIVE YEARS for this scent to be wearable. FIVE. I bought this after testing a friend's bottle from ...2006? 2007? Whichever version she had, I was in love with it. When I got this, I said GACK because it was so strong and overwhelming, and put it away. I tested it a couple times a year after that, and around 2018 it started to get more tolerable. It's still not the same as the older version I tried, but I like it much more now. It's a cool, resinous apple and slightly buttery pumpkin. The spices and the wood have melded together to give a generally dry effect.

Super fruity blackberry musk. I like it, but I would like it more if there was more wood or resin pinning down the fruit. Might have to layer this with something patchouli or sandalwood heavy and see what happens.

Dark, musky lilac. This is a really good lilac, too - I grew up in western NY, where lilacs are A Thing, and most lilac perfumes don't smell right to me. The snow note runs almost parallel to the lilac and I don't notice it unless I inhale and think about it - it's much more prominent in the imp but gets absorbed into the floral on my skin.

It's really pretty, and it does not go powdery. I only got a decant, but it's on my shortlist for a bottle.

This scent reads as something very classical BPAL. The fruity red musk for sure, but something in the floral notes is also something that my nose specifically identifies as BPAL.

It tries very, very hard to go powdery. I almost thought this had rose in it. It's extremely pink and extremely feminine, but it is not at all what I would call girly - nor is it sultry. It's bright and confident. After about 10-15 minutes, it's still floral, but the benzoin and what I think is the blue yarrow and/or motherwort start to peek out. The honey is just a stream through the scent, I can smell it there but it doesn't try to dominate everything.

It does get pretty loud with body heat!

This was my first sufganiyot - I thought real hard about the raspberry one, but the lab's raspberry note does not generally work well on me, whereas the pomegranate does. This is absolutely delicious, desserty, tart and juicy red fruit. I smell more of the pastry in the bottle than I do on my skin, but it is definitely sugared fruit for baking rather than fresh cut.

Low throw - sticks close to the skin and fades pretty quickly, although a hint of it remains on the sleeves of my hoodie.

2020:

Evergreen, woods, and fur! Hardly any musk, but the vetiver is smoky/scorched rather than vegetal. I love vetiver and vetiver loves me, and it goes well with the woods. No civet stank that I can detect, even on a deep inhale. The evergreen aspect fades after about ten minutes and the scent is bone-dry, woody vetiver-rubbed fur.

I had to go dab Two Sheep and Two Goats to compare, and I would call them sister scents - TSTG is more cozy and just slightly sweeter, but if you like that one, give YC a try.

I got this because the notes are reminiscent of one of my favorite alcoholic drinks (Canton ginger, courvoisier, cointreau, candied ginger rim, lemon). It doesn't quite smell like the drink (in fact, the drink doesn't smell like much at all, but the ginger and then the alcohol sucker punches you after about three sips), but it's interesting!

In the bottle, I smell the gingerbread, and fizzy champagne that is very high-pitched and the scent hits way up in the top of my nose.

On my skin, there's no gingerbread - it's fizzy, doughy, lemon and sugar. Lemon cookies, but fresh from the champagne rather than gourmand or spiced from the ginger.

This is pretty much straight up bell pepper with a bit cucumber on me, but it's muted in a way that makes me assume it must be the impact of the cream. Salty cream. I smell no pumpkin or tomato, maybe a hint of the sage. And this is actually pretty good! I almost kinda want this in a hand lotion, or a shower gel.

I'm with the laundry reviews - this smells like really nice dryer sheets. Clean apple, not powdery, not juicy or even fruity, just fresh airy apple.  Not something I want to wear, but I am very seriously thinking about dabbing this on one of my wool dryer balls.

In the bottle and immediately on application, it smells a lot like Jack, but it very quickly goes buttery. Gourmand. Pastry. A few minutes later I start smelling the spices. I do not smell the Smut, and Smut is usually loud red musk on me. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and "buttered pastry with spices" is where it remains.

You know how sugar cookies often have a little lemon in them? This smells like lavender sugar cookies in the imp. On my skin, it gets brighter and the bergamot and tea both get stronger, but it still retains that slightly sweet cookie aspect to it.

I am in that small group of people that really enjoys vetiver, and I have always gotten along well with oakmoss and sandalwood of every variety, so I had high hopes for this scent and I was not at all disappointed.

This is not scorched, smoky vetiver - it's quite mild and smooth - but if you are not a fan, this probably won't change your mind. The sandalwood is the most prominent note, and it's very dry. I don't know if "sweet" is really the descriptive I want for the oakmoss, but it counters the dryness of the sandalwood with something that's almost powdery. If I spray it on my skin, it starts to develop a craft store soap whiff to it, but in my hair it stays dry and woody. And unlike the other hair glosses I've tried so far, the scent really lasts - I've had it in for several hours and I can still smell it clearly.

ETA six weeks later: This is a lot less "sweet" now, and the vetiver is a lot more noticeable on first spray. The rest still stands, though - it's not scorched or vegetal, and the sandalwood is still the most prominent once the scent settles.

This is absolutely beautiful in the bottle and on application: bright, fresh, juicy apple and honey that is not syrupy. I reeeeeally have to inhale to pick up any amber or vanilla husk. No cedar, no oud, not even saffron which is normally a pretty assertive note. Very low throw.

After a few minutes, the scent darkens up a bit. The vanilla starts showing up, and I think that must be the oud, because it's still not amber or cedar - but there's also no trace of indoles. Hooray!

And then after about twenty minutes? It's gone. My skin ate it all, only the barest hint remains. It's a really gorgeous scent, with very little staying power.

Mine is also 24 hours out of the mailbox. I don't like uber-sugary scents (at least not to wear), and this was exactly what I hoped for: the sweetness tamped down by the dryness of the leaves (although there is nothing definitively *leafy* here) and the warm nuttiness of the pistachio. And I can actually smell that it's PISTACHIO, too! I am pretty sure that this is going right into my fall/winter rotation.

It's moderately strong when my nose is close to my wrist, but it doesn't have a lot of throw.

I put this on by accident about ten minutes ago because I grabbed the wrong bottle with the Menage artwork (look, there's not a lot of light in my apartment first thing in the morning and the corner was dark!), and figured what the heck, I'll review it as long as it's on. And then when I sat down to do the review... the scent was almost completely gone. I reapplied a little more heavily, went to make breakfast, and when I sat back down, it's still extremely low throw and fading fast. It's warm, creamy, not milky, I think the honey dust helps give it that "toasty" impression. Very mild scent, very pretty, but not something you want to wear if you want everyone passing within a couple of feet of you to notice, and on me it's just about gone after ten minutes.