lady_pandora

This is almost a narcissus single note on me, with the amber and vanilla more providing roundness and staying power rather than taking a starring role, and occasional wafts that remind me of sniffing my neighbor's irises as a kid. Really languid and pretty, giving me the impression of purple and gold. Smells amazing the morning after, too. I think the only other narcissus-heavy BPAL I have is Darkness, and this is a very different take on the note--I may need a bottle!

I also get a little lemon in the early going, and then it settles down to be a slightly sweeter Snake Oil, not very different on me from regular Snake Oil. Unfortunately, Snake Oil has never quite been my thing, so it's not quite a fit.

It's so fluffy I'm gonna diiiiieeee! This is just plain fun. Sweet sweet SWEET sugary rose and something that really does give off the impression of floofiness--I don't know how Beth does it! Maybe a light musk of some sort? Girlish and accessible--you could use this to enable your teenage sister into BPAL. There's something mainstream about it, not in an unpleasant way. Do I need a bottle? I might! There have been several occasions where I wanted to smell PINK in great big capital pink foofy letters, and I don't have anything else quite like this.

2018 version. OK, if I hadn't been looking at the notes list, I would have been willing to swear in a court of law that there was orange, or at least orange blossom, in this. It starts with sort of a floral orangey scent, then I get more of the coconut along with some musky sweetness. It's evocative of sunscreen, tropical drinks, and warm skin, and will be a great scent for summer. I don't always mesh with this type of scent, but I'm liking it here. Unfortunately, it fades on me after about an hour. Decant keeper, but probably not a bottle.

This is so pretty! I smiled as soon as I opened the vial and got a whiff. Not much of a morpher on me, this is mostly honey-rose with a little lavender foofing around in the background. I'm going to plagiarize my own post from the testing thread, but this smells like spring in a bottle to me. Soft, pink, dreamy, uber-femme, a little old-fashioned. I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this during the spring, and I definitely need a bottle. And I discovered a new-to-me poet! I know not everybody's into honey, or rose, but if you do like those notes, you need this. ETA: With a couple more wears, have noticed a distinct mintiness in the early stages!

I bought Aegir because I fell in love with the imp of Silence that came in my Black Friday order. I'm already halfway through that imp because it's become my favorite sleep scent. So when I saw lavender and cedar as notes in Aegir, I thought it might hit the spot similarly. It's not quite the same, but I do like it! Aegir starts out a little nutty in the first few minutes, and then becomes lavender/cedar/salt. Others have mentioned that there's something masculine about it, and I would agree, and I'm not sure which note is creating that impression. It would keep Aegir from becoming a day scent for me, but for sleep I don't mind it. It's beautifully calm, soothing, and oceanic without being ozoney. I slept in it last night with good results. I think it would smell amazing on a guy too.

This starts out with a note reminiscent of something like melon? It makes no sense with the listed notes, so my skin or nose is being weird. Then it becomes cinnamon-dominant. In the later hours I can make out frankincense close to the skin, but the throw continues to be all cinnamon. There's nothing objectionable about it, but I have spice blends that stand out more, so this is probably one for the swaps.

Wander Darkling is very much myrrh-dominant on me; I can't make out a lot of the other notes individually, and this scent smells to me like a close relative of some of the other "darkness"-themed scents Beth has done, such as Event Horizon and a couple of the Eclipse 2017 scents I tried. This is awesome, because I've been kicking myself for months for not getting big bottles of any of the Eclipses, and because I love the slight soft rose I pick up in the middle stages of this one, which is gentler than the opium in Event Horizon. Keeper!

I smell patchouli and tobacco and...rain? Seriously, there's something about this that reminds me of that rain smell. It's really refreshing and a nice counter to the fact that the dominant notes in this are on the heavy side. I agree with melodynamite that this isn't sweet like Nasty Woman--I can't make out any of the vanilla or tonka. I admit I bought this because the description moved me, and I didn't even expect to like it--I'm not a big tobacco fan as a general rule--but I like this way better than I expected to. I'm still not sure if it's "me" but I keep going back to sniff my arm.

HFS I love the honey note so much, just gonna huff my arm forever. Honey and snow, pure and simple and so pretteh.

A little lemony in the first few minutes (a bit of lemon balm maybe?) and then becomes a combo of herbs with white floral, with a little woodiness hanging around in the background. Not so much somber for me as just very calm. Without sharing any notes as far as I know, it has a similar vibe to Silence, which I guess makes sense. This one's a winner for me!

There's an herb in this, which I can't identify, which just doesn't get along with my nose, and wafts up to me periodically while wearing the scent. It's a shame, because I feel like the honey-amber core of this is really pretty, and I think on someone else it could be a soothing scent like the review above me describes. I could potentially see using this in a TAL sort of way though, on candles or the like. ETA: I think LizziesLuck is right--the off note is kind of metallic! I wonder what we're picking up on? It's so weird!

This is one of those "smells like the BPAL box" scents on me, and it was driving me nuts all night trying to figure out why it seemed so specifically familiar, and I finally pinned it down: it's a close relative of The White Witch. Which kind of makes sense when I look at the note list--4 notes in common--and also makes sense thematically! And it came along at just the right moment for me, when (a) I'm almost out of The White Witch, ( I've been amping red musk too much, and so it's fortuitous to find a "sister" oil without that one note, and © the Women's March is tomorrow, and I shall be nastying up the place. I really like it; it's a little hippie and a little fruity and a little incensey and very comfortable on my skin chemistry.

This scent is weird but I think I like it. Initially the throw is medicinal, eucalyptus maybe or something camphoraceous, and the skin scent is more of a smoky wood. Gradually the throw calms down and the apple comes out more in the skin scent, though there's still a chilly edge to it from the medicinal note. Makes me think of melancholy late fall.

I get a cloud of incense, I think including red musk, over the wood note that was in the eponymous Crimson Peak. Pretty and ethereal and a little spooky.

I think you'd like Spellbound in the GC (musky incensey rose), CIcuta in the Vampires (rose/incense/candle smoke), and Elizabeth of Bohemia (rose and oudh) from the Lupers if you can get a hold of some. It appeared in a couple of different years and I don't think it's super rare.

Minty, limey, some more eucalyptus as the scent progresses, and the amber lending a quiet sweetness that lurks at the back of the blend. I think this will make a great summer scent! It made me want to drink a lime LaCroix. And I did.

I dabbed this on as a sleep scent last night--I like to change them up sometimes, because I feel like I stop being able to smell them after a while. Verdict: awesome! I get basically no gardenia; I even forgot it was supposed to have any. This is herbal lavender with woody cedar on me, unisex, a little medicinal, probably not something I'd wear for a night out on the town, but definitely something I'd wear for meditation or sleep or just to calm my nerves. And I slept well and had a pretty neat dream too.

I loved Seven Herbs Charm, and thought it made me smell like a cross between a lemon bar and the lemon Strawberry Shortcake doll. Alas, it only came in imp form and I've been out for ages. With Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat, I was hoping to recapture that. Unfortunately, this is just too sweet on me, in the same way Machu Picchu is, or Four Seasons: Winter. I'm not sure if there's a common note or if my skin is just doing weird things. I wanted more tartness from this, I think. I like the story, though!

Cassiopeia is a cousin of Lucille and Black Moths who got lost on her way to the ancestral mansion and ended up in the sky instead. Starts out big bold wine and then morphs into smoky, incensey plum. I agree with ramblingrambler that this will probably age really well too.

Early on, I can make out red musk and what I think is the cola-y scent of opoponax, but it quickly swirls into a mix of church incense that I can't easily pick apart into individual notes. It's a little sweet, and a little metallic to add some weirdness to it, and is a completely gorgeous church incense scent while being totally distinct from Midnight Mass. I really like it! It feels old, and sacred. This is what I was looking for in The Mournful Influence of the Unperceived Shadow, which has a patchouli that kind of curbstomps the church incense on me. I overamp red musk as scents age, so my time with this one may be limited, but I plan to make the most of it!

Hypothermia starts out as a bracing, kind of mouthwash-y mint in the early stages, and then like others have described, it fades to mostly Snow White with a smidge of mint and a hint of cologney-ness. I seriously have so.much. Snow White that I'm not totally sure if I need this, but then, there was a day last week when this would have been the perfect scent: I was a little hung over in the morning and wanted a minty scent to counteract my headache, but then later in the day when I felt better, I started craving Snow White. It's such a specific fit that I think I'll hang onto my bottle a while and see if I end up reaching for it as the holiday-party season (and the morning-after season!) really gets underway.

I get snowy mint in the early going, morphing to a soft musk note (I would guess this is the "skin musk" note?) and a sweet element that reminds me of beeswax. Soft and pretty and cuddly. It doesn't really smell like the literal scent of a dog to me, but it does smell like snuggling with a dog makes you feel, if that makes any sense. Keeper!

Is there anyone else who has tried both, and felt a similarity between, Mini Magdalene and Petite Planchette? I feel like the wood/vanilla synergy is working similarly. (This is A-OK with me, as I loved Mini Mag and no longer have any.)

Discontinued: http://www.bpal.org/topic/87-tempest/