Galen

Aredhel (and Macha!) - sweet!!

I'm going to have to get me one of those once my current bottle ages sufficiently for me to start using it

purty!

 

And Macha - how cool...

oooh. spooky!

 

Thank you!

So... I want a vicarious squee.

 

Any photos of Demon in My View labels? Or the mysterious new Snake Oil?? Heck, I even want to see the Blood Moon design as a bottle label

unfortunately, jasmine likes my skin too much and overwhelms all the other notes. And when I say 'likes' I mean that it smells heady & floral and then quickly passes into heady & plastic on me...

NOIR

 

When first applied, this is spicy, a little fizzy and sweet. Yummy!

 

As it dries down, it becomes more of a "perfume" smell in that it's not foody but instead slightly spicy in a resiny way, slightly sweey and and the "fizzy" smell I associate with either myrrh or sandalwood. This blend is sexy and womanly and meant to yank a man's attention fully to you and make a subtle but definitely sensual challenge. Let's just say I felt uncomfortable with the kind of throw this was giving out on the bus during my morning commute!

 

Seven hours later, this is still noticeable if I sniff my hand - it's staying much more close to my skin

and is resin/spicy and just a little sweet.

 

I've just looked up the description for this for the first time, and I'm surprised that it contains clove and star jasmine as both of those notes have been know to amp up and take over other blends. This is beautifully blended to the point where I find it difficult to discern which notes I'm smelling!

 

I thoroughly appreciated trying this, and will be hoping that it becomes available again someday...

Is this the right place to ask this? hmmmm - I'm not sure....

 

Anyway, a persistent enabler - quimerula I'm looking at you! - sent me some Noir to - and I quote - Try; Drool; Review; Send Back!

 

I've tried and despite myself, have indeed drooled. To me this smells sophisticated, sexy and womanly and seductively challenging - in blunt masculine terms, this screams out "Come and have a go. If you think you're hard enough."

 

I don't have anyone around that I *want* to challenge in this way, but in case I ever develop a love life...

 

are there any other blends that are this potently seductive without being overwhelmingly floral?!

 

 

 

While I'm here, I've reread the whole thread. And of the ones suggested above for general male attention-grabbing, I've enjoyed O, Morocco, Snake Oil, Desire, Velvet, Aizen-Myoo, Dragon's Milk, Dana O'Shee, Bliss, Jack, Samhain, Bastet, Antique Lace, Chaste Moon, The Star, Snake Charmer, Anne Bonny... I think I need a man to experiment on

 

And Love Me I can see the sexiness of, as I spilled some on my top, where it worked far better than on my skin

 

although I think I may have to have some stand-by Scherezade, even if I don't personally like it - just for experimental purposes, you understand

Resiny, warm and sweet when first applied, this dries down with a resiny fruit vibe, which becomes stronger and stronger as time goes on.

Cold indeed! I can smell the freshness of mint and cucumber. But overall, I just feel the sharp and and dry and penetrating COLD....

Woody and dry and spicy when first applied; the pumpkin is rather hard to detect!

 

It dries down warmer and spicier with the pumpkin pushing its way through the other notes until it is almost more warm and spicy than it is woody. Or at least almost as much. Certainly not a sweet foody blend by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Finally I'm left with a combination of the warmth of the pumpkins intertwined around the fresh dryness of growing woods.

When I first apply this, I can smell both the sandalwood - dry and a little sharp - and pumpkin - warm and rounded.

 

a wonderful combination as they hold each other in check; the warm and the dry play off each other wonderfully giving almost as nutty a combination as chocolatey Pumpkin Patch #2, but not as sweet or warm, and the warmth that is there makes the sandalwood more wearble than it often is on its own.

 

A study in contrasts like several of the other pumpkin patches, in particular PP#5 - the woods and ivy - but I think that this one is my favourite - sophisticated and balanced, and more traditionally perfume-like than the other pumkin blends which are more foody/fruity/woody.

juicy and fruity and warm and spicy. not as sharply juicy as the apples in Pumpkin Patch #1.

 

But this starts out foody and warm and juicy - yummy - but dries down a little less sweet and quite a bit more acidic.

Nutty, sweet, spicy chocolate - yummy!

 

This dries down to be warm sweet and cuddly pumpkins. So foody that my mother asked who was eating toffee and laughed when I admitted that it was my perfume

 

This is the sweetest of the PP blends, and perfect for days when you want to smell like nutty toffee

I don't drink, so I'll assume that cider smells mainly like boozy fermented apples... Here goes with the review

 

I dab this on, and I smell crisp green apples. The same crisp green apples that overwhelmed The Hesperides on me, although there the apple was a very dry note, wheras here the blend is sweeter and a little warmer.

 

As it dries, the blend smells even sweeter; is this the cider coming out to play?

 

I don't smell very much warm round pumpkin in this until it dries down, but even then, the warmth of the pumpkin is subsumed underneath the crisp acidity of the apples and the sweet spiciness of the cider and spice.

o/t - Jewelbug - I adore your hubby-created icons. Every time I look at your signature there's something new to drool over: the Labyrinth's peach in Fae? Western stills for Tombstone? :oooh!: The King for Velvet?

 

I don't recognise the sexy lady in Intrigue though - should I??

for vanilla my favourites are Snake Oil (but let it age for a couple of months at least!) & Jack (pumpkin spice vanilla!) & Dragon's Milk & Velvet (chocolate+sandalwood+vanilla) & Tamora (flowery peachy vanilla) & O (uber sexy - handle with care!)

 

other popular vanilla blends are:

 

Euphrosyne & Peitho & Love Me (but not if your skin hates jasmine!)

Dorian (sugared tea vanilla)

Zephyr (lemon musk vanilla)

Hunger (floral vanilla)

Desire (complex deep roses and woods and vanilla)

Gluttony (uber uber sweet and fattening)

 

there's a vanilla recommendations thread somewhere; I'll see if I can hunt down a link!

 

Vanilla Recommendations

Forum love for vanilla blends

Vanilla & Musk

Vanilla & Tea

sweet & milky

 

ETA - there are different rose varieties used in different BPAL blends - it's just a matter of finding the blends where that rose works for you. mostly trial and error, or haunting the review pages to find reviewers' impressions of how similar a rose in blend A is to rose in blends X and Y.

 

Some thread links for reading on roses-

 

Best Rose Scent

Long Lasting Fresh Rose

Rose is a Rose? - discussing the endless variety of different roses in different blends

Innocent Roses

Vanilla & Rose

All Saints'

 

Wet on the skin - flowers. Rich, slightly spicy flowers

 

and as it dries I get rich florally incense. Overpowering roses. To me, this is reminiscent of a blend with roses in it, but I cannot remember which one. (sorry - I know that's not very useful!!)

 

And then as it dries down further I get the sharp note that with my skin chemistry often accompanies certain rose blends and then the roses seem to alternate between spicy, perfumey and sharp with every sniff I take... I suspect this one might only show it's true beauty after it has settled down and aged for a while...

 

Overall, I get rich roses.

I've sniffed Sugar Skull '04 just the once and got a heavy syrupy sugar smell from it; I can't compare it directly with Sugar Skull '05 as I don't have both to hand together, but here's my impressions of this year's blend

 

Holy sweet sugary syrup, Batman! Sweet and heavy and heady when wet on my skin, and only a little less strong as it dries down. sweet and rich enough to cause cavities

 

Funnily enough, I thought I would fall hard for this one - dark and sweet are my personal preferences in a blend - but it doesn't capture my imagination as I thought it might. This is a fragrance that, for me, would work better applied lightly all-over (body lotion, oil or spray) than being concentrated as a perfume oil.

 

overall: sweet, dark, and very foody.

minty fresh sweet floral. A fragrance that takes a contradiction in terms and makes it work as a seamless sophisticated blend. It's light and fresh and floral, but far from "girly" - self-assured but relaxed.

Not a great deal of throw - someone would have to lean in close to smell your self-assurance

It works on me, but my personal style doesn't favour this kind of fragrance, so I've passed it on to someone I hope will do it more justice!

I wore this for the first time when I went to see the Serenity film, and I think it was a good choice!

 

Manly sweet leather. mmm. yum. A warrior's scent indeed - gritty enough to capture the vibe of a knock down physical fight (and the film was full of those ) while somehow also capturing the man-made feel of war and battles (and spaceships!)

 

A little too manly for me, unfortunately, but a beautiful blend nontheless, and for me it now encompasses the gritty determination of last-man-standing punch-outs

knowing that jasmine (and gardenia!) amp up strongly and smell a little sour with my skin chemistry, I shouldn't really have tried this on, but I thought I'd give my beloved vanilla note a chance to work its magic on a blend that shouldn't really work.

 

Sadly, the jasmine did amp up beyond the vanilla's ability to keep it in check, so I'm afraid I've swapped this out.

 

However, it is a sweet, effervescent blend that is heady and, well, mirthful at the same time. If jasmine likes your skin, and you like it back, I would recommend this highly

when it's wet I get a woody soft floral vibe but as it dries down the lilac takes over. I think of this as a rather soft, wistful blend

I don't usually try the boozy blends, but I was intrigued to try all of the Halloween releases this year, so here goes.

something musky and a little heady in the bottle.

on my skin - I'm getting a heady mixture of musk and something sweet and heavy, almost resin-like.

five minutes later - yup, it's musky. I can't identify it as sexy red musk or cool white musk but I'm hoping that dries down into the deep soft powdery black musk that I've been known to fall for...

Dry down- undistinguished musk on me I'm afraid. I suppose it is black musk, but somehow it doesn't make my black-musk-sense go :zinnnnng!: in the same way that Thanatopsis, Black Forest, etc. do - not as soft, not as powdery, not as sweet.

I would describe this as Buck Moon's darker brother. Not a new love, but I'm very glad of the opportunity to try it.

cranberry - thank you very much!

 

they're all stunning! Samhain & Trick or Treat in particular are really sweet.

Alright, who's going to satisfy my curiosity and post pictures of the new Halloween bottle labels?

adds her voice to the pleas.

 

pleeeeease??