kjirstiben

I am thrilled by Absinthe... a completely new scent experience and, I think, probably an addition to my list... Initially on, it's a hit of alcohol-y anise... or maybe anise-y alcohol... I've never had absinthe the drink, but I have had ouzo, and this was ouzo--for the first minute or so after I put it on I smelled rather as though I were doused in ouzo. Thankfully, this quickly passed and as the oil dried down it turned to a citrussy anise scent, a little strong, but nice. And after a half hour or so, Absinthe is a sparkly green scent, all mint and anise. Over the course of the day it fades out--I put more on at lunchtime but by dinner it's almost gone, so this isn't a super-long-lasting scent! I can see, though, that this is probably a love it or hate it scent--it all depends on how you feel about black licorice. If, like me, you picked the black jellybeans out of the bag to eat first (and gave the rest to your little brother), you'll probably like this scent.

Lyonesse is... delightful. I think I've found a new addition to my top 5 list. Upon first application, I could smell a vanilla-resin combination, and as it dried down initially, there was an earthy, patchouli-esque note that flared for a couple minutes then faded. After a few hours, there is a cloud of smooth, almost buttery vanilla that I catch a whiff of now and then, but when I put my nose close to my wrists it's a resiny, powdery vanilla-amber. Normally, I tend to amp vanilla to the high heavens (which means I end up smelling like frosting), but this scent has a certain salty tang that I'm reading as "buttery". I suspect it may be the ambergris. It's not a heavy scent at all--it teases your senses at the edge of perception. Just the right amount of scent to enjoy without knocking yourself--or anyone in close proximity--out.

Regan came to me as a frimp, but it's been hanging out on my "To get, someday soon" list so I was quite thrilled when it was in my latest order. Wet, this is a sweet floral. Almost too sweet right at first, then the floral amps out, but always with some sweet vanilla behind it to keep it from going overboard. After an hour or so, this tones right down into a soft, sweet, femine scent. The vanilla isn't so much a foody vanilla as the sort of vanilla that you get in a "lavendar/vanilla" fabric softener (incidentally, my favorite type ever!). It's evenly balanced with the orchid and stephanotis to provide a long-lasting, delightfully sweet and soft result. I like this one a lot, and I think Regan will be a bottle in my near future!

Probably the oddest scent I've tried yet--a frimp in my latest received order. I haven't had any experience with the (feared and hated) vetiver note yet, so I'm curious about this. But... in the bottle and wet--How strange! It smells like... Liquid Smoke, that seasoning you have to use sparingly or bad things happen (speaking from experience here). I smell like I poured hickory smoke on my wrist... no, wait! I smell like BACON. Why would a person want to smell like bacon? Thinking this must be an artifact of my skin chemistry, I decided to leave it on and see if it metamorphosed. And (thankfully) after another hour, it did. A slow breath of pine started peeking out from underneath the barbeque pit smoke, and a while after that, it was smoky cedar and pine... the smell of a bonfire on a chilly night in the woods of the Pacific Northwest... very nice. (I'm still not sure I want to spend any time smelling like bacon to get here, though. I will have to consider this.) Rating: ????? Very odd. Interesting. I like the theory of it, but I think my tastes tend toward sweeter and greener scents.

It's a good thing that I like this one, because I accidentally ordered it twice! (I didn't realize it was in my previous order because I didn't take good notes.) In the bottle, and initially on my skin, Gunpowder is sweet but in a scone-like, wholesome, substantial way. It's sweet like something you'd eat for breakfast, not for dessert. The carrots and apples come to the forefront, grounded by the hay and chaff notes. Over time, the coffeecake-like sweetness of it fades, and you're left with hay, chaff, and stable wood... it's dry and a little dusty and pleasant. It might be the hay note that's reminding me so much of Hay Moon. (easy guess...) Gunpowder is definitely a keeper! (If you like sweet, green, and woody scents the way I do.)

I agree with the Christmas candle association... to me this starts out smelling almost exactly like red christmas candles... It's all tart holly berry and a backdrop of evergreen. Though many people have commented on it, I get virtually no lemon out of this... it starts out being berry and evergreen, and softens down to a woodsy berry herbal freshness. A delightful and cool combination, and wearing it in August in the desert, it is a shocking juxtaposition to the season. (This would definitely be good to wear for the Advent season, as you're listening to Christmas carols.) I have the scent impression of wintry woods, snow-covered, trudging through with a sled looking for a Christmas tree to bring back home... it's an outdoorsy, crisp expression of the holiday. I love it!

I'm afraid I fall into the group who can't worship Snake Oil with the reverence it normally gets from BPAL-ers... It went on nicely, and the vanilla started to show up as a pretty, sweet scent, but over time I got an ever-increasing dose of incense. Heavy-duty incense. Headache-inducing incense. If I even wave my hand in the general direction of my nose, a cloud of what smells like vanilla incense flows over me... It smells like a heavy, "Oriental", commercial perfume to me. The kind of thing that you wince away from when the woman in front of you is trailing it down the hall and into the elevator. I'm sorry, Snake Oil. I think you're too much for me!

Golden mead, fermented with fruit, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger root, sweet-briar, rosemary, and lemon. Ahhhh... finally a scent I LOVE LOVE LOVE... Mead Moon is a sweet, tart, spiced but not spicy fermented honey scent. It's got an herby-floral twist to keep it from getting too overwhelming on the booze and sweetness fronts, and stays remarkably true to form--from when I put it on my wrist to its dry-down. It does smell a little scarily sweet-boozy in the bottle, but as soon as it's on my skin it turns into something lovely. A delightful scent that will rotate through my favorites...

I ordered this thinking it was going to be rich, sweet, and decadent, and apparently it is such for most people. However, on me Gluttony seems only to have two stages: wet: Burnt sugar (mixed with popcorn butter) dry: Burnt dirt The only consistent thing about it is the burnt quality... I've been having similarly disappointing results with other foody oils (Jack and Drink Me), so I think it may have something to do with my nose, my skin chemistry, or both!

Bengal is a very humid scent... spicy and wet. For the first hour or so, the peppery spiciness predominates, along with a strange, watery-tea impression... but after a while, the spices seem to fade and I get a somewhat sour-stale scent that I don't care for all too well. That alternates with a peppery kick to make the later stages of Bengal somewhat contradictory. I do think it's like chai tea, but it's like chai tea blend without any milk added, all sharp-sweet and watery. I've tried this one several times--I really want it to be something I like--but it's not working right on my skin... Oh well... chalk it up to learning which notes work for me!

I really want to like Dana O'Shee. I like the idea of it very much... and yet it's not working with me! In the bottle: Cherry/almond Initial application: Sweet, almondy but not overpoweringly so. A light and fresh sweetness. After a while: (when slathered) ...very, very faint. Sweet... I think... Later: Completely gone. For whatever reason--probably a combination of my skin chemistry and the scent's lightness--this completely disappears on me, even when slathered. I think I only smelled it for about 45 minutes today, and I used a lot of it! Sigh. Oh well, it was a nice thought.

This one is interesting: I really enjoy the eventual scent, but I have to go through a peanut-butter stage to get to it. (And I really don't care to smell like peanut butter, all things considered!) In the bottle, I get that almond/cherry candy smell, but it goes away quickly. Then for the first 5-10 minutes, I get heavy-duty peanut butter... maybe a peanut butter and honey sandwich... But after that, it's a sweet and slightly exotic scent, which fades away pretty quickly. This a light and sweet but exotic scent... might need multiple applications daily!

A winner! Strangely compelling... In the imp: Weird! Sweet, almost gin-like scent. I realized later it was the honey wine I was smelling. Initial application: Very floral, with a slightly tart berry note. Then... the honey wine comes back out. After a while: A little like lemon and cranberries, but with a boozy backdrop. Overall impression: I love this; can't quite identify what I'm smelling. It's so different. Citrussy, piney, herbal and alcolholic but blended together for a compelling, tart, heady scent. Delphi was on my "to try" list, but I didn't purchase it in my first go-round because I got scared by the reviews I'd been reading about how wine can go very bad with some skin chemistry. Apparently this is not a problem of mine--it just rounded out the scent and gave it a truly unique pungent tone. I'm starting to suspect that "boozy" notes work on me. I'll definitely be getting a bottle of this one.

In the imp: Floral, resin, herbal? --Sharp Initial application: Woodsy, pine needles and sandalwood over a dry, musky/powdery background After a while: Dry x10... Dried resin, pleasant, not too sweet... it almost disappears ***And then it did disappear (after ~15 minutes), so I reapplied with a more generous hand.*** Eventually: This is all dry wood and powdery background, maybe some ozone. It faded into a dusty wood scent that is nice but not terribly exceptional. Interesting experience... a frimp and not a combination of notes I would have thought to try. It fades away very quickly on me, with a faint dusty wood scent left behind.

I tried O the first time and got mainly "sweet, sweet, sweet!" out of it, with a powdered honey-amber finish... So I decided to wear it out this weekend to the movies with a group of friends... and I was, frankly, embarrassed to smell so very decidedly... well, we'll just say it's named "O" for a reason. Something about the honey and amber together were giving a sweet, salty-skin vibe... definitely not G-rated! It's more presentable after a few hours, but I think I'll choose my venues carefully for wearing this scent!

In the bottle: Honey and sweet citrus (orange, upon checking the notes from my description) Initial application: Roses show up upon skin contact--this is all rose at arm's-length, and honeyed, greeny rose close up. After a while: Roses, indistinct--distant orange with a flowery tone (orange blossom), some honeyed sweetness. Roses have a freshness that keep it from being too cloying. Eventually: Roses--dried roses, maybe a touch of sandalwood toward the end. This was what I initially noted when I tried Jezebel the first time. Today I'm wearing it again, and I think I applied it too heavily, because for the first four hours I felt like I was floating in a cloud of rose and orange blossom. I have the headache to prove it! When I sniff my wrists I get the sweet honey scent, but I'm wafting pure floral. I like the scent as a whole, but I think I'm going to have to apply this with caution from now on, in order to avoid a floral overload. A little goes a looooong way...

Fascinum was the first really bad experience I've had with BPAL so far. Not sure what did it, but something started to amp after it hit my skin and it kept getting worse, and worse, and worse, until I had a headache and a burnt-out nose... I scrubbed it off--with several rounds of soap--and it mostly went away, thank goodness! In the bottle: Amber and cedar. A resiny scent. Initial application: Cedar, mostly. Slightly masculine, herbal. A little later: Quite masculine. Cedar and... something... reminds me of old-man aftershave... strong, heavy. Almost minty, but not in a sweet way... tangy, almost bitter Eventually: Something in this started to amp into screaming generic male cologne, of the headache-inducing, taste-it-in-the-back-of-your-throat variety. Overly pungent and extremely masculine on me. I had to wash it off because it was taking over the room. I find this terribly disappointing... I like amber, cedar, saffron... all those golden scents. But this just would not play with my skin chemistry. Perhaps I'll set it aside and see if aging improves it.

I got Hellcat above all for the reviews that said it smelled like the Home Sweet Home candle from Yankee Candles--my favorite candle smell of all time. And I wasn't disappointed... that's EXACTLY what it smells like on me (after a rather weird start when it's wet). In the bottle: Buttercream frosting with rum. Initial application: Weird! Frosting... and butter... and... is that marshmallows? A slight almost-floral scent emerges... almond? After a while: Very sweet, but not particularly foody. Like a scented candle (Home Sweet Home, as mentioned above). Sweet, tart, a little sharpness and just a hint of mild spice. Overall impression: I love it! Not sure if it will appeal to anyone else, but I'll like the way I smell when I wear this!

I wasn't certain about the notes in Baghdad... But since I've been to the place and I'm going back, how could I not have its eponymous fragrance? (As an aside, you'd never want to smell like Baghdad itself smells at present... dust, burning garbage, and oil refineries are not romantic or pleasant scent experiences!) However... In the bottle: WOOD!! It smells like "New Age Bookstore" to me, a combination of incenses and sandalwood Initial application: Perfumey wood... almost... soapy? Is that bergamot I'm smelling? After a while: Resiny sandalwood, and some musk. After a few hours, rose showed up and set up permanent residence. Overall impression: Musky, resiny dried rose petals with a woody start. Personally, it's a little too "perfumey" for my tastes (that might be the musk?), since by the end it smells like a scented body powder. I'm not set against it, however. Just not sold yet.

In the bottle: Whoa, butter! Butter flavoring, maybe ... a little smoky. Initial application: Butter not (quite) so prominent... is that... clove? Buttered clove and peach? After a while: It starts to mellow, and the scents are combining more. What I get mostly is a buttery pumpkin soup smell, savory rather than sweet. A couple hours later: Peach pie filling... slightly goopy, overripe peaches. (Granted, my skin does not like fruit smells and does strange things with them.) I wanted to like this one... I really wanted to love it. Pumpkin spice is the first candle/room/soap scent that I'll snatch for when it's available, but I think I must like the pumpkin pie spice more than I like the pumpkin. And Jack is all about pumpkin... and later, peach. Odd. Overall impression: A dinner of golden buttered pumpkin soup followed by peach pie.

In the bottle: Sweet-spicy, almost a cinnamon candy smell, with cloves and nutmeg, like a holiday spice cupboard. Initial application: Still spicy, a little darker and warmer. Strong cloves, nutmeg, allspice... interestingly, I don't get the overwhelming cinnamon out of this that so many people have commented on. After a while: The spices start to mellow, and it turns into a rounded wood (not trees--burnished wood) and tea with spices scent. Lovely. It stays close to the skin and faded out fairly quickly, which is too bad because I love this... in all its manifestations. Lots of clove throughout. I did notice that my skin turned red and a little blotchy when I first put it on, and itched slightly. However, the reaction went away quickly, and the scent is definitely worth it!