splendidissima
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Matcha Latte Cream Pie
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
This was - also unexpectedly - my second favorite of the pies in this batch! (After London Fog.) Just upending all my assumptions about which ones I thought I'd like, heh. This one feels really well balanced: vanilla cream + green grassy matcha, equally, plus just a hint of buttery pie crust. The vanilla cream smooths and sweetens the grassiness, while the matcha adds a 'green' complexity to the cream. I do like London Fog a tiny bit better but that's personal scent preference; if you like grassy/herbal notes with some sweet softness, this would be for you! I think this one and London Fog do kind of the same thing...I don't know how else to describe it...in which the sweet cream note interleaves really nicely with a sharper/herbal element, and I like that. -
Bombastic Subtropical Turquoise Cream Pie
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
Lots of tropical fruit - I can't pick out individual notes, just a fruit basket - with a slightly artificial note, not in a bad way: like children's candies or gummy bears or something. Under that, a buttery pie crust. I do picture a color of tropical blue-green, maybe on a beach, for the color of the pie crust. It's a fun one to have tried! -
Strawberry Lemonade Pie
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
This was an odd one because I wanted to like it more, but, like others have said, the lemonade is very tart and very strong! No pie crust at all. I might try using the rest of the imp in an oil warmer in the kitchen; I feel like it would be fine as a summer clean kitchen scent. -
London Fog Cream Pie
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
Oh, I never reviewed this one! This was unexpectedly my favorite of the 2025 pie imps - tea and I don't always get along on my skin, but here it's really lovely! The sweet cream + pastry note (I would agree with others above that it's more like a sponge cake than pie crust) balances out the tannic black tea perfectly, elevating both aspects! It's more complicated and just a little pointed, versus a pure gourmand; but then the potential sharpness is toned down and softened and wrapped up in grey-lavender clouds. It goes on strong, but it does fade fast, but maybe I'm just being too careful about hoarding my imp! I had *just* put this on when my office-mate walked in and immediately said, "Something smells good in here!" 🙂 -
Sugar Glaze
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Single Notes, Layering Scents & Simple Blends
No other reviews yet? I guess I shall! This really is exactly what it promises: the scent of sugar glaze! No trace of the donut - nothing cakey at all - but somehow capturing exactly that crackly pale sweet dry sugar, a little crumbly, melting on your tongue. I tried layering it with Chocolate Stout Cupcake, and it was GREAT - adding sugar to the not-too-sweet stout baked good. Time to try it with more! (I will say that on its own, this is one of those scents that fades super-fast on me - still not sure if it's a me being over 40 body chemistry thing, or something about recent blends themselves, but that seems to be happening a lot lately! Guess I'll just go through my stash more quickly...and then buy more... ) -
Beaver Moon: Pink Lime & Coconut Hair Gloss
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Hair
Continuing my "BPAL hair glosses never are quite what I'm imagining but still good" saga, this one's just all coconut on me! It's a nice light billowy coconut (proper coconut, not sunscreen) and I do really like it, but I don't get any lime at all - which makes me just a little sad, as I love lime in my BPAL perfume oils! Good staying power in my hair and strong scent, so it's nice for summer! -
Creamed Corn and Dark Chocolate
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Okay, so...I opened this and got weird scent-flashbacks to...very early in my first BPAL go-round, like 20 years ago (gosh)...there was a Halloweenie...I believe a Trick Or Treat...that was meant to be candy corn, but on me smelled mostly like caramel corn. (Not at all a problem! I like caramel corn!) This is like...the updated, chocolate-ified version of that! By which I mean there is absolutely a sweet corn note - if you also liked Ceres ("billowing clouds of mallow flower, cream, and peonies, soft blushing amber, corn kernels, budding wheat, and spun sugar"), there's something of that in here, minus the peony and mallow - or some others with the classic BPAL 'sweet grains'. And that is layered with a rich dark chocolate - not too sweet, more molten (versus dry), like a really, really good gourmet chocolate bar, the kind that tells you to rub it lightly first to release the oils and warm it slightly, tangible, textural, sensual. Both notes go together beautifully, with a gorgeous balance of creamy sweet grains and bittersweet luxurious chocolate. Sadly, my skin just EATS this - I've had this happen with quite a few recently released BPALs, and I don't know if it's a Lab component thing, or the mid-40s Time O'Life Thing on my end. (I put on Millennial Pink this morning before teaching, though, and that one lasted for hours! - but then that one was always loud on me.) I put a fresh dab of CC&DC on while I started typing this review, and can barely smell it on my wrist now! -
Butterscotch Bitch
splendidissima replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
I wanted to get more of the Lestat scents, but so far most of them have had at least one note that really isn't a 'me' note - but this one sounded good! And it is luscious indeed, and evocative! Smoky butterscotch - sort of autumnal - with the rich warmth of cognac, and then a bright/sharp bite from the pepper, which I like - something that brightens it and makes it feel a little dangerous and more complex than sweet dark fall browns. I'm not even sure how to categorize it, because it's got that butterscotch base but it's not really a gourmand, as someone said above - it's more complicated and the sweetness is tempered by everything else. Very Lestat! -
Creamy sweet rose petals! Plus some...little hints of raspberry and currant, like you just ate a dessert with those, and you're next to a rose bush, but the bush also has sweet luxurious cream flowing around it in some sort of fountain. This is really pretty, and I could wear it to teach a graduate seminar on medieval romance, or something like that - fruit-floral + sweet cream, professional but interesting, more stately and plush than flirtatious or dramatic, but still more intriguing than an average commercial scent.
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This is...also...oddly...reminding me of some other older BPAL, something with sweet apples and fruits...something from the 2010s era...this is what I get for dropping out of the BPAL scene for a decade, ahaha! I get sweet red strawberry + sweet crisp apple, more strawberry than apple, but I do get both. My childhood hometown has a Strawberry Festival, and this is like the sweetest best small ripe berry, no insipid grocery store imitations, please! Plus that sweet, not-at-all-tart apple. I don't really get the cream or amber here, but I'm not mad about it; I like this. It feels very springtime to me!
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Ooh...spicy cherry-strawberry liqueur! Spicy as in cinnamon and clove, not, like, hot sauce. 😛 This is very fun and I keep sniffing my arm just to smell it. I don't really get the amber; it's very spice+berry/cherry. It feels like a Lab throwback to me in a weird way - trying to place what scent it's reminding me of! Something about the classic BPAL spice/dark fruit combo... I like it, though it feels 'darker' to me than some of the other Love Bites - more autumnal, perhaps? Maybe it's the spices?
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Dark sweet cherry and a swirl of tropical fruit! A hint of cream in the background, just enough to add some rounded, well, creaminess, but it's not overly dairy or buttery. I really like this one! (Also a lot of my husband's family is still in Manila, so we love it when the Lab does all the Filipino-inspired scents!)
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This is so good! Creamy butterscotch, buttery pumpkin, warm slightly sweet dark ale. Absolutely delicious; I keep reaching for it!
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Lemon, sugar, brandy, rum - exactly what you'd expect from a warm Victorian holiday punch-bowl! It's bright and festive and a little old-fashioned, and I've been reaching for it during the gloomy weather this week!
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Mmm, this one's nice! I primarily get a thick creamy cheesecake, plus the same graham cracker note that's shown up in a few other scents lately. Not overly sweet, more creamy vanilla - I don't really get pumpkin, and I think the ube is contributing to the creamy not-too-sweetness, like a sweet potato pie, perhaps. I like it!