gingersnapp

Mmmm, caramel and vanilla and sandalwood. Very little else is detectable, but this is so lovely that I don't really mind smelling only those notes. This is warming and comforting on a cold Michigan winter day.

I can't believe I hadn't reviewed this yet, since it was one of the first bottles I got when I first discovered BPAL, but then I traded it away and just re-ordered it for myself so I'd have a bottle of every blend with a honey note. Anyway, this is a clean, light scent. I get ginger and vanilla, with the softest touch of tea and milk. The linen note is so soft and wispy that it only comes through occasionally. This blend is very delicate and comforting, like curling up with your mother in a crocheted / knitted afghan.

Whoa, this is a weird one. I know I'm smelling the nutmeg, and that's the most prominent. But I don't know what else it is that's in there that I'm smelling. Maybe the clove? This is a very spice-cupboard type of blend, but it smells like wax. Seriously, it's like taking a big whiff of candle and you can actually smell the slightly greasy texture of the wax.

Mmmm, this is masculine, but I really like wearing it. It is mostly pine on me, but sweetened by the almond milk and sasparilla. I get a hint of the tobacco smoke, but only a little.

Snake Oil. But as if Snake Oil had been made into incense and burned on my flesh.

Damn do I love the Lab's cake blends. In the bottle, this is perfect buttery cake goodness. When applied, it immediately gets fruity from the wine grapes, and now, an hour later, the frankincense is adding it's warm dustiness to the blend. The cake smell is mostly gone except for an underlying sweetness. Gorgeous!!!

Dark chocolate with a heavy cream undertone. In the bottle and upon application, this is a thick, rich, ultra creamy brownie batter. Then this dries and almost instantly, something dryer comes out into the forefront. It's still very chocolate, but it almost smells woody on me. I don't know what this is, as I'm sure it's not the "heavy cream undertone." I feel like I'm smelled this before, but I cannot recall which blend it is that this reminds me of. Very yummy.

Yes, this is purple. It's the perfect balance of fruit and flowers and booze. Most noticable at first application were the wine grapes and the violet. Now it's turning plummy and figgy and there's a touch of cognac. This isn't overly heady like I was afraid it would be. It is quite sweet, though, and a little more floral than I usually would wear. But I think I'll hold onto it because some days, you just need to be purple.

This is exactly what I wanted. In the bottle, it's all wine. On my skin, the second it touched me, the honey came rushing into the forefront. Yay honey! It's still very wine-y, which makes me happy, and there is a touch of dustiness from the champagne grapes. When I was a child, my caretaker had a fence on their property where wild grapes grew, and this is exactly what this smells like. It's not boozy, but it is very sweet and I love it. This is my new favorite blend.

In the bottle, this is all buttery cake. But as soon as it hit my skin, the incense bloomed and joined the cake note. A short while later, the light fruitiness of the currant joined in. This is gorgeous and smells absolutely delicious.

I really love this blend compared to the original formulation. When it goes on wet, this is almost exactly like a Terry's Chocolate Orange on me. When it dries, it's more citrus than chocolate, but the sandalwood and star fruit and other notes really become more prominent. That's not to say they're individually detectable, though... this is really well blended. It's warm and fruity and foody but slightly floral. It's just incredible.

Lily is the most prominent, as expected, since my skin amps that note to the nth degree. It's very floral, and has a bit of that soapy thing that I was worried about. Very pretty, but not really me.

This scent stays very close to the skin. So much so that when I think it's gone entirely, I put my wrist up to my nose and am surprised at how fragrant it is. This is all ginger and honey on me. Absolute perfection.

I bought this for the cognac and the honey, and it does not disappoint. Sticky, sweet honey wraps itself around myrrh, patchouli and the floral notes, while the musk and the cognac give it a very heady base. This is just sexy beyond belief. SO glad I bought a bottle of this. I can only imagine it will age very well also.

This is warm and sensual. It's very resinous on my skin and in the bottle... there is this one deep base note that I can't quite place, but I know I've smelled it before (maybe in one of the Sephiroth blends?) and I LOVE it. It's almost woody, like a sandalwood, but I can't put my finger on it.

This smells like mulled cider, and almost a little bit "craft store" on me. The tartness of the cranberries seeps in just slightly when I get close to my skin, but the throw is all cider.

The throw on this is almost all buttery pumpkin, but close to the skin it is dusty and dry - a combination of the amber, fig leaf, cardamom, and ginger. I don't get any citrus out of this, but I don't really mind. This is warm and beautiful and the perfect scent for autumn. SO worth the wait time.

This is light and sweet, with honey-kissed almonds. In fact, it smells almost exactly like a soap from Basin called Milk & Honey. I grabbed a bar when we were in Disney World, and this oil is the perfect compliment to it.

In the bottle, this hits you in the face with buttery caramel and tart apples. It's like that on the skin when wet, but as it's dried on me over the last hour, it's definitely lost all of its "appleness" and is now some weird combination of butter and coconut. Not at all fruity or what I was hoping for.

This is exactly what I would imagine Wilhelmina Murray in the film would smell like. Soft and floral, but with a little hint of fruit and dragon's blood resin. Dragon's blood usually overpowers every other note in a blend on my skin, but this time it's playing very nicely, especially with the tea rose and blackcurrant.

The essence of nobility, brutality and true Will made flesh and propelled through the eons by an ever-burning hatred: black patchouli, neroli, tonka, cinnamon, bitter clove, leather, black musk, coffin wood and fiery ginger. When I put this on, it was mostly a sweet and nutty clove smell. Now that it's been dry for a couple of hours, it's definitely become masculine and colognic. I think I'm getting the ginger and maybe some of the leather and cinnamon. I don't know what coffin wood would smell like... dry, or what. I don't really detect any wood right now, but this one is morphing delciously so we'll see what's what in a couple more hours. Very light and stays close to the skin.

This is woods and stone, covered in a damp, green moss. I don't get the incense so much, but it definitely has a Midnight Mass quality to it... if the church had been abandoned for hundreds of years and the plant life that surrounded it swallowed it whole.

Dragon's blood. That's all my skin ever lets me smell. I'm going to try aging this and seeing if the other notes ever become more prominent.

This is a creamy floral. Actually, it screams jasmine because that's what my skin always amps up to the nth degree. I don't know what's making it "creamy," per se. Maybe the orris? I really don't get either of the citrus, and can only barely detect the amber.

In the bottle, the vanilla was very apparent among the other notes, and when it was first applied it was mostly vanilla and patchouli. This blend is a morpher, though. Shortly after I applied it, the pine pitch came out and it was like sitting in the middle of a pine forest. Then it smelled like there was a cinnamon note in there, but looking at the list of components I don't see any cinnamon, so maybe that was the pink pepper? At any rate, it became spicy and somewhat... fizzy? Seriously, it was very bubbly and effervescent (sp?). Now, about an hour after I applied it, it's become slightly berry and a dusty scent like the tobacco leaf and the patchouli is back. This is a lot of fun, and I'm very glad I got this blend because every phase of its morphing has worked great with my skin chemistry. Love it!