Shollin

First sniff: Very decidedly aquatic, almost sharply ozoney.

 

Wearing: I gotta go with Remy (of Ratatouille) on this description: "It’s lightningy. Yeah, lightningy!" By which I mean it reminds me quite a lot of the Lightning scent, the same sort of rainwashed ozoney clean. The amber never showed up.

First sniff: At first I thought this was a musky aquatic, which is an odd combination. It’s light and sweet over the deep furry base. After reading previous reviews, well of course that’s jasmine, what was my nose thinking? Jasmine and white musk. Very shimmery. I’m not getting the rose pile-on, thankfully.

 

Wearing: This is really beautiful. The jasmine in most BPAL blends goes screamingly sweet on me, but this ain’t it. It’s a nice round just-sweet-enough white floral, with maybe a hint of rose around the edges but not enough to make it powdery. I’m thrilled I got to try it. Thanks, vacpl!

DCXXXVIII (decant from vacpl)

 

First sniff: This smells an awful lot like pumpkin. With something lighter. Maybe pumpkin and… mint? It’s a weird combination. It doesn’t really smell like mint, but it makes the edges of my nose cold the way mint does. Maybe a very light spice.

 

Wearing: On my skin it’s quite pumpkin-spice-y, still with that indefinable chilliness. Really spicy. Not in a burny way, but there’s a heaping helping of spices in here.

 

Previously reviewed by Aredhel.

CDXXV. I received this decant from vacpl, but it doesn't seem to have a review yet.

First sniff: This is nice in the vial. A little bit white-musky, a little bit soft-fruity (maybe some plum?) and a little bit of green.

Wearing: Ack! Where’d that sharp resiny thing come from? It’s almost acrid in its sharpness. The happy musky fruityness is almost completely buried. Darn.

First sniff: From the vial this is bright and playful, a liberal dousing of verbena grounded by a little something earthier, but exactly what that might be isn’t apparent just yet.

 

Wearing: Still very citrus. The fig hangs out behind trying to make itself known, but for now the verbena is just too loud for anyone else to get a sniff in edgewise. After a few minutes the verbena chills out a bit and the musk starts to smolder through from underneath, all warm and round and seductive… mmm. The coconut keeps peeking out from time to time, but for the most part it’s musky lemon.

 

Unfortunately, after it dries all the way, the vetiver shows up and does its swampy thing. It’s faint, but definitely noticeable on my wrists.

First sniff: Sweetly, lightly resinous, a little bit churchy but sunlit, brushed with bright flowers.

 

Wearing: It’s a lot more floral than I expected, bright yellow and orange florals touched with sunlight. It seemed to develop an incensey aura… but I should note that I was burning Great Africa before finishing this review and it’s entirely possible that what I’m smelling is the incense smoke clinging to my clothes! The wrist-scent is still very much flowers.

Hey guys,

 

Sorry, apparently I didn't make myself clear. We only need the BPAL tags in the first post of each review thread. If they happen to show up on page 2 or 3 or 74, that's fine, but for right now we're only concerned about that first post getting tagged, and those are the only ones you should be reporting to have the tags added.

 

Thanks for keeping an eye out!

 

ETA: We've got all the first posts fixed now, so if you do see a page-topper review that isn't tagged properly, do feel free to report it.

While we were out, the great and powerful Quantum Spice created a new coding tag to set off the Lab descriptions in a scent's first review. Clover and I have been tweaking madly, and we think we've got 'em all switched over.

 

But in your travels, if you happen to come across a first review where the Lab description doesn't look

 

 

kindly hit the report button and let us know so we can fix it.

 

The tag, if you want to use it yourself for future reviews, is

 

[bpal]a little somethin' like this...[/bpal]

 

So if you're lucky enough to be a first reviewer, you can make the description look all purty.

 

Any questions? Lemme know!

First sniff: Gingersnaps with pumpkin spread. Very spicy-baked-goods-y.

 

Wearing: For all his rarity, the Pumpkin King didn’t quite kill me ded, but his lady might have managed. Samhain is outdoors-in-autumn in a bottle. Pumpkin Queen is indoors-in-autumn in a bottle, with the cozy and the baking and the spices and the kitcheny goodness and the family all together. There’s pumpkin pie and hot apple cider stirred with a cinnamon stick and some potpourri bubbling right over there and any minute the first leaves will start falling outside but for now the sky is brilliant blue and the trees are wrapped in rainbows and we’re in the warm kitchen looking out.

 

I love the ones that smell like experiences more than like actual stuff.

First sniff: Oh so very caramel-apple, and the apple is very very green. Yum.

 

Wearing: Ooh. There’s the coconut. Coconut and apple and pastry, all slathered in very buttery caramel.

First sniff: The Brides remind me a little bit of O… they have the same sort of honeymuskamber feel, very slinky, with a bit of floral in the background.

 

Wearing: The white floral shows up a lot more on my skin, and the honeymuskiness retreats. I liked it better the other way. Come back, lovely honeymusk!

You can't search for Ra because the search engine is limited to words of four or more letters. But check out this announcement, which is at the top of every one of the review subforums, and there's a list to all the short names.

 

Specifically, the reviews for Ra are right here.

First sniff: Syrupy sweetness, with a few flower petals, smothered in darkness.

 

Wearing: It’s very thick and very sweet and very dark. It’s hardly a “foody” scent, but it made my stomach growl from the incensey deliciousness.

Nope! At least not on me. Two, Five and Seven is probably my second-favorite rose scent after Rose Red (and I'm not generally a rose person); Catherine went straight to rose soap.

First sniff: Lemon. Big strong lemon with a little bit of sugar.

 

Wearing: It’s overwhelmingly lemony. Not Lysol, fortunately, but I can’t smell anything but lemon while it’s wet.

 

But as soon as it dries, it’s a very different story… a little bit smoky, a little bit sandalwoody, still a little bit of sugar, and the lemon retreats to the background. Very complex and intriguing.

 

Here’s an additional weirdness: I noticed that when my skin is warm, like when I’m in the hot car or standing in the sun, I get lots and lots of coconut. Smoky coconut. I think this may be the morphiest scent I’ve ever worn.

First sniff: A thick, sweet, earthy sort of scent.

 

Wearing: It didn’t smell too promising in the vial, but my skin picks up the patchouli immediately and gives it a nice bit of oomph. It’s always refreshing to find a resiny blend that doesn’t have frankincense (which hates me).

CDLXII: I got this in a swap with Forspecial Plate approximately twelve million years ago, and I'm very much yay that I got to try it, because it's delicious.

 

First sniff: Boozey berry cupcakes. Dude.

 

Wearing: It's definitely that buttery-sweet cake base, and fruit, and a little mint? and something that makes me think of alcohol. Like trifle or fool, one of those fruity-cakey-creamy desserts with a little splash of liquor. YUM.

 

Last reviewed by Midnight Aeval.

First sniff: Whoo, vetiver! Very serious swampiness.

 

Wearing: I did the crook-of-the-elbow thing because vetiver always hates me and I didn’t want to be bathing in it. And sure enough, despite all the other fascinating notes listed, the vetiver just completely takes over.

First sniff: It seems like all the Salon scents feel incensey to me even when they shouldn’t. This one is sort of a figgy, plummy, ambery incense.

 

Wearing: Hello, rose! It’s poofy-powdery at first, but the other notes quickly rein it into a lovely deep spicy floral.

First sniff: Soft, quiet, deep, powdery, and very very blue. Very evocative… and it reminds me of something I can’t place. It’s beautiful in the vial, but I’m afraid of what my skin will do to something that already smells powdery.

 

Wearing: I have the Sarah MacLachlan song of the same name in my head, and it seems to fit the mood. The painting and the scent both hold a sense of hushed expectancy… it’s the same sense I’ve occasionally gotten flashes of during midnight services on Christmas Eve.

First sniff: Hazel-green and herbal, not quite sweet but hinting at it. The orange blossom is quite prominent.

 

Wearing: Ooh. I haven’t discovered a new orange blossom scent in a while, and I’d forgotten how much that note likes me. Almost-sweet orange blossom and green herbs. Sadly, all the affections of the winsome orange blossom cannot dispel the swampy curse of vetiver, which takes over entirely within the hour.

First sniff: It smells a bit appley to me. Incense and apples.

 

Wearing: Nope, no apples. Just deep dark resins and churchiness.

With the help of the lovely shriekingviolet, I finally figured out how to get my "hard-to-find scents" list into a more visible location. Check out any of the review subforums, and it'll be right at the top.

 

Hope y'all find it useful. Any questions, additions or other fixes, please feel free to PM me!

First sniff: Cherry blossom tea. There’s a hint of soapiness that I really hope will behave because the rest of the scent is quiet and lovely.

 

Wearing: Pink-white blossoms draping softly across my shoulders as I walk slowly through the trees beside the reflecting pool. Exquisite and understated. I adore it.

First sniff: Sweet incense backed by something watery.

 

Wearing: It’s very delicate – sweet, soft, maybe a little soapy, with the gentle watery background.